Shortly after a fire broke out in a home in the busy market area near Hyderabad’s Charminar, local residents rushed in as first responders and started bringing out those trapped inside. Zahir, who has a bangle business, was among them. Speaking to NDTV in the aftermath of the tragedy, which left 17 people of a family dead, he described a heartbreaking sight: a woman had embraced her children in a last-ditch attempt to protect them from the flames. They were charred in that last embrace.
“We managed to get inside shortly after the fire started. The flames were huge. Inside the room, a woman had hugged children. She was dead,” Zahir said.
According to the information so far, the fire appears to have started due to an electrical problem and the victims were caught unawares because they were sleeping. The nature of construction proved to be a major obstacle in rescue work. Most shops in this market are at least a century old, and rooms are constructed on top of them. There is a row of windows on top of the line of shops and most of these windows are presumably closed at night when air-conditioners are on. In the case of a fire, this would lead to a massive build-up of smoke in the small rooms. Another problem is the single, narrow entry point to access the rooms.
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