A major fire broke out at Numaish, the famous Hyderabad Industrial Exhibition here at city's central part of Nampally, on Wednesday evening, reducing at least 200 stalls and property worth crores of rupees to ashes.
Different products, including clothing and cutlery, worth crores of rupees stocked by owners of the stalls for sale in the exhibition were gutted. “Seven fire tenders reached the exhibition grounds within a few minutes. No loss of life was reported. Most of the visitors to the exhibition were already evacuated,” Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar told The Hindu over phone. However, preliminary reports suggested that six cases of smoke inhaling and injuries were reported. Fire started near Vanitha Maha Vidyalaya (degree college for women at Nampally) side around 8.40 p.m. Within a few minutes, it spread to surrounding stalls on the premises spread over several acres of land.
Gas cylinders which burst open were seen lying in the debris prompting witnesses to conjecture that the fire would have spread due to these exploding. Officials stationed at the Fire Control Room said that they received the first call which reported the fire at 8.42 p.m. “Despite pressing into service several fire-tenders, the blaze could not be controlled. With each passing second, more stalls were catching fire,” a policeman at the spot said.
Shopkeepers, whose shops were gutted lamented said they lost stock worth crores of rupees.
Eyewitnesses said the fire engine inside the exhibition could not reach the spot. "It it took 15 minutes for the first fire engine to reach the spot," a stall owner said in choked voice. Desperate shopkeepers were seen removing the clothes and other inflammable material. As passers-by and crowds of onlookers gathered there, the firemen had tough time moving fire-tenders and dousing flames. Utter confusion prevailed due to darkness and lots of people were tense as their family members got separated as they were trying to rush out of the venue.
Requests were also made to leave the place as early as possible without causing inconvenience to others Parents, whose children lost their way in the crowd, were a worried lot. Frantic appeals were being made through the available public address systems calling out names of near and dear ones. An unidentified woman took the mike and was desperately appealing to her brother Salman and Naseer to come to the announcement area.
Exhibition society secretary Ranga Reddy said that the fire spread quickly as most of the damaged stalls were selling clothes. Mayor Bonthu Rammohan who rushed to the spot, told reporters the fire first broke out in a bank stall and spread quickly. “Local shopkeepers alerted each other and in the meantime, police, the fire services, the GHMC and Water Board swung into action,” he said.
“There was no loss of life. More than 150 firemen struggled to control the fire. Nearly 30,000 visitors were inside the exhibition when fire broke out,” he said.
