Fire at Palika Bazar garment shop, 12 in lodge have narrow escape

Hyderabad: Twelve persons staying at Bobby Luxury Lodge near Palika Bazaar were rescued from a major fire that broke out at a garments shop located adjacent to it at about 5.30 am on Sunday. The rest of the premises were empty, given the early hour.

Teams of firefighters, police and Disaster Response Force (DRF) personnel were deployed to the spot. The premises and inventory of the Dhamaka Sale Shop in the G+1 complex were entirely gutted, while other shops located in the vicinity also suffered losses amounting to lakhs of rupees.

Officials said that 15 people were staying at the lodge. Three of them managed to escape quickly while others were stranded, engulfed in smoke.

“It was dark. There was no power and we panicked when thick smoke entered our rooms through the grilles. We had no way to escape the fire which spread to the door,” said M. Raghu, a trader from Warangal who was staying at the lodge.

“There were 15 of us from different states. Three of them managed to escape but rest of us were trapped. At 6.30 am, we heard some shouts and water being sprayed,” he said.

G. Rajesh, a trader from Mahbubnagar, who was among the 12, said: “A man in blue with yellow cap and others guided us to the stairs downwards. We could take a deep breath only when we reached the open. In the absence of the fire department and DRF teams, we would have been trapped.”

The complex, which houses both the lodge and the shop, hosts over 300 shops. Officials said they cut the power supply to prevent the spread of fire to other shops and gained access to the lodge by making a hole in the basement and entering through another portion of the building to use cannons and heavy-duty smoke extractors.

“We reached the scene within 11 minutes of receiving the fire call. Five of our teams extinguished the fire while another team was involved in sucking out the smoke through smoke machine. Luckily, all 12 persons were rescued by our fighters,” D. Mohan Rao, Secunderabad Station Fire Officer (SFO), said. “Market police and DRF teams had also arrived by then. Another five DRF teams removed the debris with an earthmover placed it on the other side of the road.

Ramesh, the owner of the garments shop, said that besides the material in the shop, those stored in the basement were also gutted. Six shops surrounding his store also suffered severe losses.

He said that the electricity department was undertaking some work and completed it around 4.30 am, during which the shop’s guard was told to shut off the main power switch.

“When the guard turned the power on after 5 am, he said he saw sparks coming from a nearby electric pole connected to the complex. Luckily, there was no one in the store then,” Ramesh said.

Market police sub-inspector K. Mamata said: “Except property damage, no one was hurt in the fire. We ensured that the traffic flow was smooth as lot of people were devotees. Our constables did not allow passersby to stop at the scene, as it could have led to a traffic jam.”

Y. Lakmaiah, another sub-inspector of the Market police, said they registered a case of fire accident and that a preliminary probe suggests the fire was caused due to short circuit.