Telangana govt forms committee to inquire into Hyderabad building fire accident

The Telangana government has constituted a six-member committee of senior officials to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the devastating fire in a building here that killed 17 people and submit a detailed report, state minister Ponnam Prabhakar said on Tuesday.

A blaze in the residential cum jewellery shops complex building in Gulzar Houz near the iconic Charminar here on May 18 killed 17 people, including eight children, belonging to an extended family of a jeweller.

The committee will comprise Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner R V Karnan, Hyderabad District Collector Anudeep Durishetty, City Police Commissioner C V Anand, Disaster Response and Fire Services Director General Y Nagi Reddy, Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) Commissioner A V Ranganath and Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) Chairman & Managing Director Musharraf Ali Faruqui.

The Committee would make suggestions to prevent such accidents in future after making an assessment of the situation on the ground with regard to fire safety, Prabhakar, in-charge minister for Hyderabad, told PTI Videos.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy would review the report to be submitted by the committee, he said, adding that appropriate measures would be taken then. ''There is no conspiracy. The government has immediately responded,'' he said.

Revanth Reddy had ordered an inquiry into the fire accident.

Meanwhile, police and Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services officials on Tuesday said the exact cause of the fire is under investigation and experts will investigate to ascertain the actual cause.

The officials had earlier, citing preliminary information, said the blaze was suspected to have been due to an electrical short circuit and that the fire started in the main electrical panel area in the shopping area on the ground floor.

Asked about the claim of an electricity department official at Charminar, quoting an eye witness that a cylinder blast led to the fire accident and a short circuit cannot be the cause , a police official of Charminar division on Tuesday said experts of different areas, including forensic science, fire and electricity, would go into the cause of the accident.

''How can you say (cylinder blast) ? Are you an expert in cylinder... is he an eyewitness? What I am saying is, we won't say anything (about the cause, as of now)...17 people died in the fire accident. Investigation has begun. Experts will come. They will visit (the site). Only after that, the truth would be known,'' he told PTI.

Asked if they noticed any cylinder blast on the site as claimed by the electricity department official, a Fire Department official on Tuesday said they did not.

He also said the experts will investigate on what is the actual cause of fire. ''Until the completion of the investigation we cannot say. The experts will find out (the cause of the fire),'' the official said.

The official said wooden panel decoration was done in the shopping area recently and it was burnt, adding the electrical wires were burnt on the upper floors and the air-conditioners were also found burnt.

The building housed jewellery shops on the ground floor, and people were residing in the first and second floors, police earlier said, adding that smoke spread and people suffocated.

A narrow staircase was the only escape route for the inmates of the building, but they could not rush out.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)