INDIA.Telangana: In an uncontemplated way, a massive fire broke out at an electric showroom at Secunderabad, on Monday at 10 pm. The intense fire spread grasped the restaurant located above the showroom.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has ordered a preliminary inquiry into the fire at an electric bike showroom in Hyderabad’s Secunderabad area, a senior government official said.
The MoRTH constituted an expert committee chaired by ARCl Hyderabad Director Tata Narsingh Rao, Center for Fire, Explosive & Environment Safety (CFEES) scientist M. K Jain, Indian Institute of Science Principal Research Scientist Subba Reddy and IIT Madras Professor Devendra Jalihal as members. Recommend additional safety requirements in existing battery safety standards notified under CMV rules.
The cause of the incident is predicted to be the short circuit during the charging of EV scooters. Roughly, eight people including a woman lost their lives to the mishap, seven severely injured were rushed to various hospitals. The multi-storey building is an amalgamation of a hotel and a showroom, “Ruby Motors and Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel”.
Following the incident, Hyderabad Police Commissioner, CV Anand said, “ It appears there are 23 rooms on all the four floors in the hotel. The smoke traversed through the staircase from the bottom up to the top floor and completely engulfed all floors.”
He added, “People who were sleeping on the first and second floors came to the corridor through the thick smoke and died due to asphyxiation”. The investigation revealed that, for the last past year, the owners of Ruby Motors, Rajender Singh Bugga and Sumeet Singh were running an illegitimate e-bike business, without taking prior permission.
According to reports, The hotel is situated on the top five floors of the building that has 28 rooms which have a strength of 25 guests at the time of the accident.
Like a bolt from the blue, several lives were starved to death. The DCP North Zone, Chandana Deepthi said, “The nature of the accident was such that everyone was engulfed in thick smoke. There was zero visibility, so they could not go towards the stairway.”
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in a Tweet expressed his grief for the loss of innocent lives and wrote, “Saddened by the loss of lives due to a fire in Secunderabad, Telangana. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF would be paid to the next of kin of each deceased. Rs 50,000 would be paid to the injured.”
