Cuttack: A couple from Odisha is among the eight persons who were killed in the fire that broke out in an e-bike showroom in Secunderabad and spread to a hotel on its upper floors late in the evening on Monday.
The deceased couple hailed from Mohanty Sahi of Kafla Bazaar in Cuttack city. The deceased have been identified as Chandan Jethi and his wife Mitali Mahapatra.
Chandan and Mitali were married last year and Chandan used to work in a private firm in Bengaluru.
The couple was on a pleasure trip to Hyderabad and had stayed at Ruby Luxury Hotel on the upper floor of the building that housed the e-bike showroom.
Eight people were killed and nine injured in the fire.
The other deceased have been identified as Virendra Kumar (50), Rajiv Malik (26) and Sandeep Malik, all from Delhi, Sitharaman (48) and Balaji (58), both from Chennai and Alladi Harish (33), a resident of Vijayawada.
The injured have been identified as Jayant (39) from Bengaluru, Rajesh Jagadish (49) from Gujarat, Umesh Kumar (35), a marketing manager from Kolkata, Deepak Yadav (38), a quality officer from Haryana, Keshav (27), who hails from Chennai and working as an engineer in Mumbai, Debashish Gupta (36) from Kolkata, Santosh (26) and Yogita (26) both from Pendurthi in Andhra Pradesh.
They were all visiting Hyderabad for business or for other personal work.
According to police, the incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. in the building located near the Regional Passport Office. The fire started from the e-bike showroom in the cellar and heavy smoke engulfed the upper floors housing Ruby Luxury Hotel.
Fire fighting personnel pulled out nine persons from the hotel. Some of those staying in the hotel jumped out of the windows to save their lives.
Two fire tenders rushed to the scene and doused the flames. Most of the deaths are believed to have been caused by asphyxiation.
A short circuit is believed to have caused the fire, which spread in the showroom. As the batteries of the e-scooters parked there exploded, it further spread the fire. Dense smoke engulfed the upper floors and the guests were trapped in their rooms.
Officials, however, said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
Additional Director General (fire services) Sanjay Kumar said the building had permission from municipal authorities for only four floors but the builder constructed an additional floor. Though the cellar was meant for parking, a showroom of electrical vehicles was opened in violation of rules.
The officer said the building had only one entry and exit which resulted in the guests getting trapped. The sprinklers installed in the building did not function which led to the delay in dousing the flames.
The government of Telangana has announced an ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh for the families of each of the deceased. Minister for municipal administration K. T. Rama Rao expressed shock over the mishap and conveyed his condolences to the families of the deceased.
(with IANS inputs)
