In the early hours of March 23, when a scrap godown in Secunderabad’s Bhoiguda caught fire, Prem was one of the 12 workers sleeping inside. He was the only one who managed to jump off the first floor before the fire engulfed the building where they had been working and staying. Although Prem called for help immediately after escaping, by the time help arrived, the fire had spread across the godown, and the 11 men trapped on the first floor were burned to death.
A CCTV video from that night has now surfaced, which shows Prem jumping out of the first floor onto a slab just above the ground floor, and jumping onto the street. He is met with another man and both of them are seen moving away from the godown building, before the fire aggravates.
A CCTV footage captures how the lone survivor in the Bhoiguda scrap godown fire jumped to safety. TNM had reported this story based on the survivor's friend's statement. #Hyderabad https://t.co/E0X4SF889M pic.twitter.com/JIrzxXhdN1
— Paul Oommen (@Paul_Oommen) March 25, 2022
The 11 victims who lost their lives, as well as Prem, were migrant workers who had been hired for loading, unloading and segregating the scrap at the godown, and were paid Rs 600-700 per day. They had been staying on the first floor of the godown, where they stayed after work, cooked their meals and slept at night.
District Fire Officer (DFO), Hyderabad, M Srinivas Reddy told the media soon after the incident that the owner of the godown should not have provided accommodation in a place where highly combustible materials were stored. “Even if they were given accommodation here, there were no proper exits, just a spiral staircase on one side. The victims were surrounded by flames,” he said.
The fire officials also said that they were not informed about the people trapped inside at first. “When we found out, it was too late. We believe they died in the initial stages of the fire,” the DFO Srinivas Reddy had said.