Fire breaks out at Secunderabad’s Swapnalok Complex
Senior officials of the fire department rushed to the spot on learning that few persons were trapped on the eighth floor of the building
Hyderabad: A massive fire broke out at Swapnalok complex, Secunderabad on Thursday evening. Around 13 persons including few women who were trapped in the commercial building were rescued while efforts were being carried out to rescue a few more who were feared to be inside the building.
According to the fire safety personnel, the fire started at around 7.45 pm in a room on one of the floors at Swapnalok commercial complex. On noticing the flames, the occupants rushed out through the stairs while many got trapped in their offices.
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Around 200 shops and offices are located in the multi-storied building complex. On receiving a distress call, the fire officials directed around five tenders including snorkels to the spot to douse the fire.
The fire was brought largely under control in around in an hour and a half after the fire started in the building.
A few persons who were trapped on the fourth and fifth floor rushed towards the balconies and using mobile phone lights alerted the fire officials. Police deployed fire snorkel truck to reach and bring them down.
On the information provided by rescued people about a few more persons including women trapped inside the building, fire personnel launched coordinated rescue operations by roping in personnel from various disaster management agencies including the fire department, GHMC Disaster Response Force and local police.
Senior officials including Director, EV&DM GHMC, N Prakash Reddy and other officials of fire department went inside the building to trace the persons who were feared trapped. As the building was covered with thick smoke, the officials sent personnel equipped with oxygen apparatus to the top floors.
A few persons who were rescued from the building were shifted to ambulances and later to hospitals for first aid as they complained of uneasiness.
Photo: K Sai Baba
Animal Husbandry Minister, T Srinivas Yadav reached the spot on Thursday night and interacted with officials from different emergency departments.
Hyderabad Mayor, Gadwal Vijayalakshmi also visited the spot and inspected the fire fighting and rescue operations. She said that the building is around 25 to 30 years old and an inspection will be done on Friday to find out if all necessary fire safety precautions were in place.
The rescue operations were going on till filing of the report.
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