Hyderabad, 18 May 

For the 17 people who perished in a blaze near the historic Charminar here on Sunday, the house located in a tunnel-like alley with a narrow entrance and staircase proved to be the death trap as it prevented them from escaping to safety.

AIMIM chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi told reporters that the family has been residing there for 125 years, indicating that generations have been living there for over a century.

The family is said to be running one of the oldest jewellery shops in the city,

"Now only two members of the family are left. I want to offer my condolences. I was informed by DG Fire Services that most of the deaths happened due to asphyxiation and fumes...let the report come, it is very painful," he said.

The blaze, triggered by a suspected short circuit in a decades-old building (G+2) near Gulzar House here on Sunday, killed 17 persons, including eight children.

It took two hours and as many as 11 fire tenders to douse the fire, Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Director General Y Nagi Reddy said, adding that rescue personnel had to wear oxygen masks to enter the blazing house.

"The entrance of the building, which is narrow, was engulfed with fire and smoke, and the access to the first floor through the staircase was only one meter, due to which the occupants were unable to escape. The building had only one entry of two metres, which is like a tunnel," Reddy said.

The access to the first and second floors was only one staircase of one metre width, he added.

Reddy said the occupants were sleeping when the fire broke out.

He added that four people who were sleeping on the second floor were rescued using ladders.

Shortly after the fire broke out, Zahid, who is into bangles business in Gulzar House area and an eyewitness of the fire incident told reporters that at around 6.10am when he along with friends were passing by, a woman told them about the fire that erupted in the building and there were family members with children inside.

"As the main door of the building was engulfed in flames, we broke the shutter and also a wall and entered inside. As the blaze was high, we went to the first floor. We found seven people in one room and six others in another room. We were not able to save them due to the fire. Had we saved them, it would have been good," he said.

He further said he saw a dead woman hugging some lifeless children.

The fire department said there was no alternate exit staircase/path to the upper floors, and since fire started on the ground floor, smoke and heat quickly reached upper floors, blocking the only available access.

There were no windows or doors facing the available road to use hydraulic platform and quick ventilation.

The Osmania Hospital mortuary, where bodies from different hospitals were sent for autopsy, wore a grim look as relatives burst into tears in shock.