“It was so ominous that there were no calls for help. Everyone inside was silent,” said Zubhan, a retailer in Hyderabad’s Charminar area, describing the morning of Sunday, May 18, 2025. By the time the blaze in the Gulzar Houz neighbourhood was out, 17 members of one family were dead. Eight of them were children.
Fire officials put the first alarm at 6:16 am. Y Nagi Reddy, director general of the Telangana disaster response and fire services, said 11 fire engines were sent to the three-storey building, which held a pearl trading shop on the ground floor and family homes above. The fire was under control by 9 am.
A building with one way out
The layout decided the outcome. Reddy described a single entry two metres wide, “like a tunnel,” and one staircase a metre across serving the upper floors. Smoke filled both. Residents say bikes parked at the entrance were blocking it, and Reddy said fuel from those bikes fed the flames. There was no second exit and no external fire escape, officials told reporters.
Firefighters went in wearing oxygen masks and breathing apparatus. They also brought a fire robot and a Skylift hydraulic platform. One firefighter fell ill during the operation and was taken to hospital.
Reddy said 21 people had been inside. He defended his department’s response: “There was no deficiency in the fire department fighting the fire and rescuing the people.” Some locals saw it differently. Zaman said fire engines were already on the street when he woke to the smell of smoke, and the blaze on the first floor was raging by then.
What neighbours saw
Zahid said a woman raised the alarm and he and his friends ran over. With the main door in flames, they broke the shutter and then a wall to get in. On the first floor they found seven people in one room and six in another. “We were not able to save them due to the fire,” he told the news agency PTI. Zubhan said firefighters were calling out that there were bodies in each room above, including a mother and two children trapped together.
Cause and response
The preliminary finding pointed to a short circuit. Reddy said the cause of death for everyone was smoke inhalation and that nobody had burn injuries. The fire is thought to have started on the ground floor, in a jewellery store that was shut for the night. The Hindustan Times named the shop as Krishna Pearls. The list of the dead released by the state’s fire and civil defence service includes eight children under 10, the youngest 1.5 years old, named Prathan.
Chief Minister Revanth Reddy ordered a full investigation and told officials to move the injured to nearby hospitals for better treatment. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said families of the dead would get an ex gratia payment of ₹5 lakh each. Prime Minister Narendra Modi added ₹2 lakh per bereaved family and ₹50,000 for each injured person from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund.
Sources
- What led to the Hyderabad building fire that killed 17? Official reveals cause | Hindustan Times
- 'No calls for help': Locals recall horror as 17 die in Hyderabad blaze | Business Standard
- Hyderabad fire tragedy near Charminar sparks investigation | International Fire & Safety Journal
