One year after Gulzar Houz fire, old risks continue to haunt Hyderabad’s historic core

A twelvemonth aft a devastating occurrence that wiped retired 17 members of a pearl trader’s household successful Gulzar Houz adjacent the historical Charminar, the blackened bequest location inactive stands barricaded, frozen successful clip amid the bustle of the aged city.

The soot-stained structure, erstwhile location to 3 generations including 5 brothers and their families of the Modi household, present remains inaccessible adjacent to surviving household members arsenic the probe into the calamity continues. For the family, closure remains elusive a twelvemonth later.

“The location is successful shambles. The probe is inactive underway, and our location is inactive successful constabulary custody. We person requested the authorities aggregate times to springiness america entree to our home, but we person not received immoderate response. Why instrumentality truthful agelong for this? We already person gone done a batch of pain, and this hold is adding to our suffering,” said Sunil Modi, 1 of the 5 brothers who survived the inferno.

Now surviving astir 8 kilometres distant successful a newly-constructed location successful Attapur, Sunil said the past twelvemonth had been astir learning to unrecorded with loss.

On May 18, 2025, a occurrence broke retired astatine a jewellery store connected the crushed level of the family’s two-storey gathering and rapidly dispersed upwards into the residential floors wherever household members were asleep.

By the clip firefighters managed to participate the smoke-filled structure, 17 people, including 8 children, had died owed to suffocation and fume inhalation.

A twelvemonth later, the marketplace extracurricular remains arsenic crowded and chaotic arsenic ever. Tourists proceed to flock to the aged city. Vendors outcry implicit 1 another. Scooters compression done congested lanes. Business has resumed.

The Modis, too, restarted operations, shifting their jewellery concern to shops connected the other broadside of the roadworthy from their destroyed home. “It has not been casual to restart beingness again. Five brothers and their families lived there. Our concern was there. We could ne'er ideate our ain radical would dice struggling for enactment wrong our ain home,” Sunil said.

The fearfulness of that greeting inactive lingers successful the memories of residents and exigency responders. “That occurrence was thing else. We struggled to get into the house. Scaling the constrictive interior staircases to rescue radical and bring retired the bodies was a terrifying experience,” recalled Mirza Karamatullah Baig, 1 of the firefighters.

Old dangers persist successful the aged city

Yet, contempt the standard of the calamity that had concisely shaken Hyderabad into introspection, small appears to person fundamentally changed successful the aged city’s municipality fabric.

Around Charminar and Pathergatti, residential buildings proceed to treble up arsenic shops and warehouses. Buildings basal wall-to-wall with astir nary setback space, entrances stay congested, portion basal occurrence information infrastructure specified arsenic extinguishers, ventilation systems and exigency exits is often absent.

Fire officials said the larger situation has been changing nationalist behaviour successful areas wherever information violations person agelong been normalised.

Despite accrued inspections, consciousness drives and mock drills aft the Gulzar Houz fire, compliance remains poor. “So galore notices person been issued and consciousness programmes conducted, but cipher cares. The cognition is ever that it volition not hap to me,” Mr. Baig said.

Probe remains unfastened a twelvemonth later

Fire section officials maintained that determination had been nary hold successful probe from their side. “We sent our study wrong 10 to 15 days aft examining the existent origin of the fire, details connected the operation and information of the gathering and vulnerabilities that whitethorn person worsened the tragedy. An adept from Nagpur besides sent a study to the instrumentality and bid police,” Hyderabad DFO Thagaram Venkanna said.

Charminar ACP P. Chandrashekar said the probe had mostly concluded, but the process of handing implicit the spot remained unresolved owed to concerns implicit structural safety.

“Structural experts from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University who examined the gathering recovered it unsafe for habitation aft suffering extended interior harm successful the fire. They recommended reconstruction successful accordance with prescribed information norms earlier the spot could beryllium handed backmost to the family,” the ACP said.

Police said discussions implicit the conditions for handover were inactive continuing. Meanwhile, each aspects connected to the occurrence stay nether investigation.