M A I N   N E W S

Fireworks snuff out 12 lives

Hyderabad, October 23
Twelve persons, including two women and a three-year-old boy, were killed and 12 others injured when fire broke out in a firecracker shop-cum-godown in the busy Begum Bazar area early today. Seven persons died of burns and five of asphyxiation.

Additional Director (Fire Fighting Services) P. Venkateswar Rao said fire brigade personnel reached the spot within minutes of receiving the call around 4 a.m. Six fire tenders battled for nearly two hours to bring the fire under control.

He said firemen had removed nine bodies and rescued 13 others from the third floor of the four-storeyed Kartikeya Lodge where the mishap occurred on the ground floor.

The nine, including two women, died of asphyxiation while asleep. Three of the 13 rescued later died at the nearby Osmania General Hospital.

Hospital sources said the deaths had occurred mainly due to inhaling carbon monoxide and of burns.

Six of the dead have been identified as Mohammed Ismail (30), A Habib Ali (36), Abbas Suleman (60), Abid Abbas (30), Hussain Ali (21) from Gujarat and K Shivashankar from Nellore.

According to reports, the fire broke out due to a short circuit on the ground floor of the building. It soon spread to the Canara Bank branch situated on the first floor and the Kartikeya Inn, a private lodge, on the second floor.

Most of the victims were staying in the lodge when they were jolted out of their sleep in pitch darkness by deafening explosions and thick smoke. As the building had a single entrance by the side of the fireworks shop, many were trapped inside.

Local people, braving heavy odds, rescued 25 persons from the lodge. Meanwhile, the police arrested Sanjay Bupe, son of Manikrao, the owner of Shanti Fireworks where the fire broke out. Manikrao got admitted to a private hospital citing a heart problem. He is under police surveillance.

Cases have been registered against Sanjay and Manikrao under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and Section 286 of the IPC (handling of explosives in a rash and negligent manner). UNI