A massive fire in Hyderabad’s posh Madhapur area left several people homeless as 150 huts in a slum were gutted on Thursday morning.
Officials suspect that the fire was sparked off by firewood that was used for cooking in the huts or a short circuit and pegged the damage to property at around Rs 75 lakh.
According to reports, there are several hundred huts in Patrika Nagar, which housed people working as construction labourers, daily-wage labourers and petty vendors.
The police were alerted of the fire at around 9 am, by locals.
“The reason for the fire is yet to be known, but we suspect a short circuit could have led to a spark. There were only about 15 residents there, who noticed the fire and alerted us,” Madhapur police was quoted as saying.
Following this, fire tenders rushed to the spot and managed to put out the fire in a little over an hour.
“There was some property loss to residents but no death or injuries were caused. The residents are daily wage labourers working at building construction sites,” fire brigade inspector T Jaganmohan was quoted as saying.
Several officials from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) visited the area to survey the damage done. Rangareddy district collector M Raghunandan Rao also took stock of the situation.
The compensation for those who lost their homes and belongings is expected to be announced soon.
In April last year, a major fire broke out in in front of the Exhibition Ground’s Ajanta Gate in Nampally, destroying nearly 60 out of the 200 huts.
Most huts were reduced to ashes as several families lost most of their belongings including clothes, cash and even jewellery in the blaze.
At the time, officials said that they suspected a short circuit to be the reason for the fire.