Major fire engulfs exhibition; 50 stalls destroyed

June 13, 2012 12:10 pm | Updated July 12, 2016 02:58 am IST - Hyderabad

HUGE LOSS: Stalls put up at the exhibition grounds at Kukatpally go up in flames on Wednesday morning. Photo: Nagara Gopal

HUGE LOSS: Stalls put up at the exhibition grounds at Kukatpally go up in flames on Wednesday morning. Photo: Nagara Gopal

Over 50 stalls of a private exhibition being held for the past few weeks near Metro Market in Kukatpally were reduced to ashes in a fire accident on Wednesday.

What triggered the fire is not yet known, but the Cyberabad police said they were probing the case from all angles, including the possibility of mischief being the motive. “Suspicions arose as different versions were coming out about the cause of the fire. We're verifying if it was done intentionally to claim insurance money,” the Madhapur DCP, T. Yoganand, said.

Exact value of the property gutted is yet to be estimated, but preliminary assessment put the loss at Rs. 2 crore. Fortunately, there was no loss of life and none was injured in the major fire accident that left half the exhibition gutted within an hour.

Four lorries gutted

Four empty trailer trucks parked on the road between Metro Market and the Exhibition site were also gutted.

Eyewitnesses said they noticed flames in the electric fuse box inside the exhibition around 7.30 a.m. and tried to put them out. “I received a call around the same time about the fire accident. By the time I reached here, everything went up in smoke including my stall with Rs. 7 lakh property,” said Anand, a stall owner. His stall in which he was selling CDs, books and toys was reduced to ashes.

Fire tenders

The fire service officials maintained that they were alerted at 8.10 a.m. and within 20 minutes the first tender from Sanathnagar reached the spot. By then the blaze engulfed nearly half of the stalls on one side. As authorities realised the seriousness of the situation, they requisitioned six more fire tenders, including a multi-purpose vehicle, from Secunderabad.

Nearly 60 firemen and fire officers struggled for over five hours to put out the fire. As flames emanating from the exhibition site extended towards the vehicles parked in the adjacent HMDA truck parking lot and the Metro Market, the police hurriedly moved the trucks from there.

Traffic jam

This sent the traffic on the adjacent Ameerpet-Kukatpally stretch on Hyderabad-Mumbai highway into tailspin for over an hour.

Police said it would have been a catastrophe if the fire broke out in the evening or on weekends when the exhibition was packed with people. “More than the fire, panic leading to stampede would have resulted in loss of many lives,” they felt.

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