Hyderabad: Massive fire guts shops at Pathergatti complex; losses estimated in crores

A major fire at the SYJ Shopping Complex in Hyderabad’s Pathergatti destroyed shops and property worth lakhs of rupees on Thursday morning. Ten fire tenders battled the blaze for nearly five hours. No casualties were reported, though traders suffered significant financial losses.

Hyderabad: Property worth lakhs of rupees was gutted down when a major fire broke out at a shopping complex at Pathergatti on Thursday morning. No casualties were reported in the incident.

According to officials, the fire started in the SYJ Shopping Complex on Pathergatti main road around 8.30 am and a local watchman, Shaik Wali, alerted the shopkeepers and the fire department.

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By 9.30 am, five fire tenders reached the spot and given the magnitude of the fire, more fire tenders were directed to the spot. In all 10 fire tenders with around 70 fire personnel and supported by water tankers from the nearby water reservoir, battled the fire for around five hours and brought it under control.

Mohd Faisal Younus, owner of Younus Hosiery, said on Wednesday that the power department had removed the supply connection to a few shops that have not paid the power bills.

“The fire started in the electrical panel board located next to my shop on the first floor. From there, it spread to my shop and other establishments. I had stocked goods for Bakrid festival, due to fire, I have suffered a loss of around Rs 2 crore,” said Faisal.

On the top floor, two banks – State Bank of India and Canara Bank are located. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Charminar), Khare Kiran Prabhakar, said: “The fire spread to three shops, there was no major damage in the banks and a diagnostic centre.”

In one bank, some property was reportedly damaged, while there was more damage on the bank located above the Younus Hosiery store.

District Fire Office Hyderabad, T Venkanna, said, “The cause of the fire is not known. Our priority was to control the fire from spreading to the complex housing scores of shops. The reasons will be ascertained later.”

The traffic on the road was diverted for a few hours to facilitate the firefighting operations. AIMIM Charminar MLA, Mir Zulfeqar Ali and local revenue officials visited the spot.