Hyd: Overload on electricity meter results in major fire

, April 3: A major fire broke out in Hyderabad with 16 shops being gutted. The incident took place near Osmania Medical College at Koti. Initial investigation has revealed that a short- circuit was the cause of the fire.

According to an official an 'overload on the electricty meter' resultedin the fire. 16 shops which have been destroyed were receiving electricty from just two meters. That is most likely what caused the short-circuit which is common during summers," the official said.

Even before the fire tender could reach the spot, much damage had taken place. "The reason was that all the shops had highly combustible material such as rexine bags, clothes and slippers. Moreover, there was no partition between the shops, each separated from the adjacent one just with a mesh,'' an official said.

Even though, the loss from the fire has been estimated at Rs 20 lakh, no lives were lost in the accident. "We received the call at 6.15 am and we rushed to the spot, which is not more than a few hundred metres from the Gowliguda fire station, within a few minutes," said Salim Khan, district fire officer.

"We had attended a distress call from Amberpet at 1.30 am on Tuesday, a little after the midnight and just a few hours before we got into action again. Thankfully, we refilled the tenders with water immediately on coming back to our fire station from Amberpet. To extinguish the Koti fire we used a dowser truck which holds double the volume of water a normal fire tender can hold," said Bhagwanth Reddy, district assistant fire officer.

The fire was extinguished in an hour.

Recently, a similar incident took place in Bangalore, where 6 people were charred to death in a fire that broke out in a godown which stocked inflatable seating material. 6 people lost their lives in the major fire.

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