Hyderabad, May 19 (PTI) The Telangana government has directed five departments, including the fire and police, to investigate the devastating fire in a building here, which left 17 people dead and submit a detailed report.
A blaze triggered by a suspected short-circuit in a building in Gulzar Houz near the iconic Charminar here on Sunday killed 17 people, including eight children, belonging to an extended family of a jeweller.
The officials of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), fire, police, revenue department and the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Asset Protection Agency (HYDRAA) would jointly probe the incident and submit a report to the government, state Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar told PTI on Monday.
As part of measures to prevent such fire mishaps in future, the government would involve local public representatives to impress upon residents of old buildings to install fire safety measures in the interest of their safety, he said.
There are several century-old buildings, including the one that caught fire, at Gulzar Houz and the surrounding areas.
The Telangana Human Rights Commission (TGHRC) on Monday directed officials concerned to submit detailed reports in connection with the devastating fire accident by June 30.
Meanwhile, a political blame game broke out over the accident with BRS Working President K T Rama Rao accusing the government of "criminal negligence".
Rama Rao, who visited the building and interacted with the victims, said fire tenders and ambulances lacked basic facilities such as water and oxygen masks.
"Nobody can bring back the 17 lives lost due to the government's criminal negligence. What we witnessed today is "shocking". Association members and victims' families told us that after the fire broke out, people kept calling for help for nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes, but no one came to their rescue," he told PTI Videos.
Even after the fire brigade arrived, they lacked water and oxygen masks, and the personnel were not adequately trained, he alleged.
He also claimed that ambulances lacked oxygen masks.
Calling it a major tragedy caused by "negligence" and "poor preparedness", Rama Rao claimed that the state government must take responsibility.
However, the government's public health director B Ravinder Nayak dismissed the charge that oxygen cylinders were not available in ambulances in which victims of the fire accident were transported to hospitals.
The health official in a release clarified that the first patient was shifted from the incident site to Osmania General Hospital at 6:25 AM in an ambulance.
He said eight ambulances were deployed to the accident site and 15 patients were shifted to different hospitals. All ambulances had oxygen.
A team of doctors was dispatched to the building where the fire broke out, and a specialist team of doctors was stationed in the Osmania General Hospital to treat those injured, he said.
He said the morale of medical personnel should not be hurt by spreading false information for the sake of deriving political mileage.
The officials of Fire Disaster Response Emergency and Civil Defence have already dismissed the allegations that fire brigade lacked water and oxygen masks.
Meanwhile, an official of the Telangana Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (TGSPDCL) denied "short-circuit" as the cause of the fire.
"I have information from the eye witness that it is a cylinder blast and not a short circuit. A short circuit is not fast enough to kill 17 people in a blast like this. The electrical wires are in a perfect condition, there is no damage in the other portion. There are no complaints.” Syed Maqsood, an official of TGSPDCL at Charminar, told PTI Videos.
Reacting to it, Police and Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services department officials said as per preliminary information the blaze was suspected due to a "short-circuit" and added the exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
A senior police official said further investigation will be carried out in detail to determine the cause of the fire.
A senior official of the Fire Services department said the watchman and few others have stated that the fire started in the main electrical panel area in the shopping area on the ground floor.
A ‘panchnama’ (inspection) of the spot has to be conducted, the official said.
"The scene of panchnama proceedings has to be done in the presence of Tahsildar. We are waiting for family members (who are still occupied with last rites) to join and list out properties (as the site has a pearls shop) for drafting the panchnama."
A team from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) will also visit the scene for investigation, police said adding a case was registered in connection with the incident.
Meanwhile, some shops in Gulzar Houz area remained shut on Monday with the owners offering their condolences to the family of the deceased.