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The bodies of five people, including two children, were recovered on Sunday, January 25, from the rubble of a furniture store that was gutted in a huge fire in Nampally, Hyderabad.
The rescue team found charred remains of five persons from the basement of the four-storey building, where fire broke out on Saturday, and shifted them to Osmania General Hospital. The search operation has been on since Saturday afternoon.
Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA), police and firefighting personnel continued the rescue operation.
The fire services department continued its efforts to control the smoke emanating from the basement of the building housing Sai Vishwas Furniture Castle.
The fire broke out around 1 pm on January 24 in the building located near Nampally Railway Station in the heart of the city.
The firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control after nearly eight hours, using skylifts and robots, but thick smoke hampered the rescue effort.
It was the locals who noticed fire and thick smoke emanating from the warehouse in the basement and alerted the fire department. Officials suspect a short circuit led to the fire
Seven people, including two children, were trapped in the fire.
The deceased were reportedly identified as Mohammed Imtiyaz, a worker at the store; Syed Habeeb, an auto trolley driver; an elderly woman named Bibi Amma; and the store watchman’s children Akhil (11) and Praneet (7). Imtiaz and Habeeb had reportedly entered the building to rescue people already trapped in the fire.
The rescue workers were having a tough time clearing the debris due to hazardous conditions inside the building.
The fire has severely damaged the building, which had a ground and four floors with two cellars, the first of which was densely packed with furniture material.
With doubts on the structural stability of the building after the fire, a team of engineering experts from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) was inspecting the structure. Based on the team’s report, the authorities will make a decision to demolish the building.
Those planning to go to the annual Numaish exhibition in Nampally were advised to postpone their visit due to traffic disruptions caused by the fire.