Hotel fire death toll rises to eight

Among killed are brothers, colleagues and couple

A day after a fire accident killed six guests of a hotel in Secunderabad, the death toll rose to eight. At least 11 others were injured.

On Tuesday the stream of police and public representatives at Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel continued with the former identifying those who had lost lives in the fire that began in the cellar of the building where electric scooters were parked.

Among the dead are couple Chandan Jethi, a techie, and Mitali Mahapatra, a technician at a hair and skin clinic. Both are from Odisha but were living in Bengaluru. Brothers from Delhi Rajiv Malik (56) and Sandeep Malik (61), and colleagues from Chennai N Balaji (52) and P N Seetharaman (45). Alladi Harish, a 33-year-old who arrived in the city from Vijayawada to attend a bank training programme, and Delhi-based realtor Veerender Kumar Devakar (50) too lost their lives.

The bodies of the victims were taken to Gandhi Hospital where distraught relatives and shocked colleagues arrived to identify them. Later, a post mortem was performed.

According to the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services (TSDRFS), the structure in which the fire broke out comprises a cellar, ground floor and four upper floors. It houses an electric vehicle showroom and hotel, The Ruby Pride Luxury Hotel that has 28 rooms. It was here that as many as 25 people were staying.

A total of 17 people, including the injured, were rescued. At least six people, including Manmohan Khanna and Rajesh Chhabra, a product manager at an engineering firm, managed to escape as they jumped from the fifth floor of the ill-fated building onto an adjacent structure which houses the Yatri Hotel.

The TSDRFS suspect that it was either an electric scooter or a generator, that was kept in Ruby Motors Showroom, that caused the fire. While the structure did have fire fighting equipment installed, it was not in working condition, they said. The building owners and those operating the electric scooter showroom have been identified as Rajender Singh Bagga, Sumeet Singh and others.