Odisha couple among 8 killed in Hyderabad inferno

Cuttack/Hyderabad: A couple from Odisha was among the eight persons killed in a major incident of blaze that took place late yesterday night at a lodge named ‘Ruby Luxury Pride’ located in Secunderabad of Telangana.

As many as 10 others have sustained grievous burn injuries in the inferno.

The deceased couple from Odisha has been identified as Chandan Jethi and his wife Mitali Mohapatra Jethi. Their bodies have been kept for the time being at Gandhi Medical College (GMC) in Secunderabad city.

The Odia couple belonged to Kafla Bazaar locality of Cuttack in Odisha. The husband and wife had got married a year ago and were previously residing in Bengaluru.

Recently, they had gone to Secunderabad city for training and were staying in the lodge located in the same building where the fire mishap occurred.

Worth mentioning, as many as three persons died on the spot due to acute asphyxiation caused by heavy smoke that spread to the entire building following the fire incident.

Later, five more succumbed to their burn injuries while undergoing treatment at the health facility.

The major fire mishap occurred yesterday in the e-bike showroom located in the ground floor of the lodge. A number of victims are from different parts in the country. The blaze started from e-bike showroom in the cellar of the five-storied building and spread to the upstairs.

Other deceased persons were identified as Virendra Kumar (50), Rajiv Malik (26) and Sandeep Malik, all from Delhi, Sitharaman (48) and Balaji (58), both from Chennai and Alladi Harish (33), a resident of Vijayawada.

The injured include Jayant (39) from Bangalore. He is undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital where his condition is stated to be critical.

Other injured are Rajesh Jagadish (49) from Gujarat, Umesh Kumar (35), a marketing manager from Kolkata, Deepak Yadav (38), quality officer from Haryana, Keshav (27), who hails from Chennai and working as engineer in Mumbai, Debashish Gupta (36) from Kolkata, Santosh (26) and Yogita (26) both from Pendurthi in Andhra Pradesh.

The incident occurred at around 9.30 pm last night in the building located near Regional Passport Office. The fire and heavy smoke engulfed the upper floors, a police source said.

Local fire services personnel pulled out 10 persons from the hotel. Some of those staying in the hotel jumped out through windows to save their lives.

Short circuit is said to have caused the fire. As batteries of e-scooters parked there exploded, it further spread the fire. However, actual cause of the blaze is still under probe, the official added.