Hyderabad— A pre-dawn inferno at a mixed-use building near Gulzar Houz, steps away from the iconic Charminar, claimed 17 lives Sunday, wiping out almost an entire joint family that had lived there for 125 years, reported the Maktoob Media.
Fire services got the alarm at 6:30 a.m., but two narrow entryways—one leading to upstairs living quarters, the other to a warren of shuttered shops—acted like a chimney, funnelling flames and toxic smoke upward. An exploding AC compressor accelerated the blaze, trapping residents in seconds.
Victims, including children as young as two, succumbed mainly to suffocation before rescuers could smash through grilled windows. Survivors were rushed to Osmania General, Yashoda (Malakpet) and DRDO Apollo hospitals.
All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi rushed to the spot, met grieving relatives, and offered personal condolences, calling the loss “unbearable” and pledging to press for a thorough probe. “This is heartbreaking; most deaths were due to fumes, not burns,” he told reporters.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy ordered a top-level review of building-safety norms, while Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka scheduled an emergency meeting on fire-code enforcement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced ₹2 lakh ex-gratia for each bereaved family and ₹50,000 for the injured.
A tentative list of the deceased includes Rajendra Kumar (67), Abhishek Modi (30), Sumitra (65), Munnibai (72), Arushi Jain (17), Sheetal Jain (37), Iraj (2) and ten others; some ages remain unverified.
As Hyderabad mourns, officials confront an old question: how many more crammed heritage-zone buildings must burn before escape routes are widened and safety audits enforced?
