Seven people died after a massive fire engulfed a chemical godown on the first floor of a four-storey building at Nampally in Telangana's Hyderabad, said an official. As many as three people sustained injuries, the official added. "The repair work of a car was going on in the godown on the ground floor. The sparks spread to the chemical barrel kept in the godown and caused the fire. Within no time, the fire engulfed other floors of the building and caused six deaths", said DCP Venkateshwar Rao, Central Zone, Hyderabad. "As many as three people were injured", added the DCP.
Visuals of the fire have surfaced on the internet. Videos gone viral from the site show a large number of people witnessing the horrific blaze while a fire brigade makes its way through the crowd to control the fire. Another video shows the daring rescue of a child and woman amid the massive fire caused in the building. The fire brigade rushed to the spot and the blaze was brought under control. The DCP further said that an alert was also sounded to the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), which sent two teams to take part in the rescue operations. “We brought the fire under control within an hour and rescued, in all, 21 persons trapped in the building and rushed them to the Osmania General Hospital,” he said. The cause of the fire and the extent of damage are yet to be officially ascertained.