HYDERABAD: Eleven migrant workers from Bihar were burnt alive in sleep after a fire swept through an unauthorised scrap godown in Secunderabad on Wednesday morning. Officials said a short circuit may have started the fire.
Fire officials said a short circuit in a switch board near the stairs on the ground floor may have started the fire which later spread to an LPG cylinder kept nearby, triggering a blast.
It took nearly three hours for five fire tenders to douse the blaze and reach the bodies on the first floor of the godown which were charred beyond recognition. Most of the bodies of the workers, who were in the age group of 20 to 40 years, were found in a heap.
On noticing the inferno and the loud sound, a watchman of a nearby timber depot informed his owner, who in turn called police at 3.59 am and alerted the fire department about the accident at the godown, located in one of the narrow bylanes of Bhoiguda.
When police officers reached the spot, they found the lone survivor lying on the road at some distance, with flames and thick smoke billowing from the godown. The survivor, who identified himself as Prem, said that his co-workers were trapped in the godown. He squeezed through the bars of a window and jumped from the first floor.