A day after a fire accident killed six guests of a hotel in Secunderabad, the death toll rose to eight. At least 11 others were injured.
On Tuesday the stream of police and public representatives at Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel continued with the former identifying those who had lost lives in the fire that began in the cellar of the building where electric scooters were parked.
Among the dead are couple Chandan Jethi, a techie, and Mitali Mahapatra, a technician at a hair and skin clinic. Both are from Odisha but were living in Bengaluru. Brothers from Delhi Rajiv Malik (56) and Sandeep Malik (61), and colleagues from Chennai N Balaji (52) and P N Seetharaman (45). Alladi Harish, a 33-year-old who arrived in the city from Vijayawada to attend a bank training programme, and Delhi-based realtor Veerender Kumar Devakar (50) too lost their lives.
The bodies of the victims were taken to Gandhi Hospital where distraught relatives and shocked colleagues arrived to identify them. Later, a post mortem was performed.
According to the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services (TSDRFS), the structure in which the fire broke out comprises a cellar, ground floor and four upper floors. It houses an electric vehicle showroom and hotel, The Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel that has 28 rooms. It was here that as many as 25 people were staying.
A total of 17 people, including the injured, were rescued. At least six people, including Manmohan Khanna and Rajesh Chhabra, a product manager at an engineering firm, managed to escape as they jumped from the fifth floor of the ill-fated building onto an adjacent structure which houses the Yatri Hotel.
The TSDRFS suspect that it was either an electric scooter or a generator, that was kept in Ruby Motors Showroom, that caused the fire. While the structure did have fire fighting equipment installed, it was not in working condition, they said. The building owners and those operating the electric scooter showroom have been identified as Rajender Singh Bagga, Sumeet Singh and others.
The TSDRFS also stated that the owners were “illegally” storing electric vehicles in the cellar.
Director General of Fire Services Sanjay Jain told the media permission was obtained for a 15 m building. However, the structure was 17.5 m in height. He pointed out that stipulations prescribe that buildings over 15 m in height should have two stairways. The building had only one. The water sprinklers were not triggered as the temperature had not risen significantly and the plumes of smoke swirled from the cellar to the upper floors by means of the stairway.
In a statement released to the media, TSDRFS stated that the building had poor ventilation and no setbacks, making it difficult to gain entry into it. Given the thick plumes of smoke, visibility was poor and there was no smoke management system in place.
Meanwhile, the Hyderabad City Police booked a case against the owners under sections 304 (II) and 324 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 9 B of the Explosives Act of 1884.
According to police owners Rajender Singh Bagga and Sumeet Singh and hotel manager Sudershan Naidu were detained.
