HYDERABAD: A major fire broke out at a paint warehouse at Ranigunj in Secunderabad on Friday. However, no casualties has been reported. A cloud of black smoke covered the area. As many as 14 fire tenders were pressed into service while five HMWS&SB water tankers were kept for refilling the tenders with water. However, there were no casualties reported.
The fire broke out at ‘Shades’ paint shop, a G plus four building located beside Bajaj service centre, near Ranigunj railway station at about 5:30 pm. What started as a minor fire spread into a major one due to the flammable materials stored in the warehouse. “We heard a loud noise from the building and soon after that a fire broke out. It was small at first but within minutes it spread to the entire building. As a precautionary measure, we made all people working in the offices nearby to leave early and switched off the power,” said an eye witness.
The fire officials were able to localise the fire to the area from where the fire started but due to no ventilation, it could not be doused even after six hours. “We got 14 fire tenders from across the city including Kukatpally, Sanathnagar, Secunderabad, Jeedimetla and other places. There were no casualties reported,” said M Srinivasa Reddy, district fire officer .
In total, about 200 personnel were deployed from the fire, traffic and law & order department to monitor the situation and maintain law and order. “The GHMC officials should be blamed for allowing such a huge structure to come up with no open area around for at least the fire tenders to move. They have illegally raised the height of the building by adding an extra floor by using an aluminium sheet,” said an official on condition of anonymity. Commissioner of Hyderabad, Anjani Kumar, visited the spot to assess the damage. Mayor Botnthu Rammohan also visited and took stock of the situation.
Trains run as per schedule
Though there were rumours of train services at James Street getting cancelled, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) sent out notices that “services were not interrupted”. The corporation even advised locals to use safety masks to protect themselves from the smoke and dust.