Telangana Minister for Urban and Municipal Administration Development, K T Rama Rao has announced that the state government would provide an ex-gratia of Rs 3 lakh to the families of the deceased, who lost their lives in a major fire accident in Secunderabad on Monday night. A lodge, Ruby Pride, located near Monda market in Secunderabad caught fire at around 9.35 pm on September 12. In the fire accident, eight people have lost their lives, while 11 people were injured, according to the latest update. The bodies of the deceased were taken to the Gandhi hospital mortuary.
All the deceased were identified as tourists, who had come to the city. According to the police, there were about 25 occupants in the lodge. While some people lost their lives as the smoke engulfed the building, some others were injured when they tried to escape by jumping out of the building.
Telangana Home Minister Mohammad Ali and Cinematography Minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav, have visited the spot and taken stock of the situation. Meanwhile, Minister KTR expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased on behalf of the state government and ordered a probe into the incident.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his condolences and announced that an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh would be provided to the families of the deceased, and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
According to preliminary investigation, a short circuit is suspected to have caused the fire in the electric bike showroom, resulting in explosion of one vehicle after the other. The hotel staff and guests who noticed the fire and smoke and alerted the fire department.
The police said the fire broke out in the electric scooters showroom at around 9 pm and within no time, fire engulfed the entire showroom. Very soon, the fire and smoke spread to the Ruby Hotel located above the showroom, where at least 25 persons were staying.