Hyderabad fire survivor recalls horror: ‘She hugged her children till the end’

Hyderabad: A devastating fire early Sunday morning claimed the lives of 17 members of a single family, including eight children, in a commercial-cum-residential building near the historic Charminar. The blaze broke out in the congested Gulzar Houz area and is suspected to have been caused by a short circuit.

The victims included children as young as 18 months and several elderly family members. The only survivor was a woman who had stepped out for a walk before the fire broke out.

Locals who rushed to help were quickly overwhelmed by thick smoke. Zahir, a nearby shop owner, told NDTV: “We broke through the shutter and a wall to get inside. It was pitch dark. The smoke was so dense we couldn’t see anything. A woman was found dead, clutching children in her arms — they had all suffocated.”

Zahir said it was extremely difficult to enter the building. “We brought out 13 people. The smoke was so thick we couldn’t see anything. We had to break down a wall to get inside,” he added, noting that most victims died of suffocation, while some were burned.

The fire originated around 6 am in the Krishna Pearls jewellery shop on the ground floor and quickly spread to the upper floors where the family lived. Thick smoke trapped the sleeping residents in the three-storey building, which had only one narrow staircase and no rear exit, making escape and rescue efforts nearly impossible.

Telangana Disaster Response and Fire Services DG Y Nagi Reddy confirmed that all the victims died due to smoke inhalation, not burns. “There were 21 people in the building. The staircase was just one metre wide, and the exit was blocked by flames,” he said.

Firefighters were alerted at 6:16 am and reached within minutes, deploying 11 engines and using oxygen tanks and breathing gear. Despite their efforts, the fire was only controlled around 9 am. One fire official was seriously injured during the operation.

Initial reports suggest the fire was caused by an electrical fault while the victims were asleep. Rescue efforts were hindered by the building's design — a single, narrow staircase and no alternate exit. Many structures in the area are over a century old, with residential rooms built above shops and windows typically sealed at night, leading to a dangerous buildup of smoke.

“The main issue was the narrow staircase — there was no way to escape,” Telangana Fire Services DG Y Nagi Reddy told NDTV.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed deep grief and announced Rs200 thousand ex gratia for each victim’s family and Rs50,000 for the injured from the PM National Relief Fund. Telangana Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu announced ₹5 lakh compensation per family and said the state would bear medical expenses for the injured.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who visited the site, called the incident "painful," adding that the family had lived in the area for over 125 years. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge described it as a "devastating tragedy" and urged party workers to support the bereaved.

The incident has reignited scrutiny over Hyderabad’s lax enforcement of fire safety norms, especially in mixed-use buildings. Just two days earlier, a similar fire broke out in a building in Afzalgunj, though no casualties were reported. The Gulzar Houz fire now stands as one of the worst fire tragedies in the city’s recent history.