HYDERABAD: A 35-year-old man died due to suffocation in a fire that broke out in a restaurant kitchen in Malakpet on Friday evening. An official from the fire department said that the management did not inform them about the victim, Shahbuddin, being stranded in the kitchen.
It took three fire tenders about half an hour to douse the flames at Sohail Hotel. The fire broke out at about 4 pm on Friday.
District fire officer (DFO) Srinivas Reddy said that Shahbuddin, a father of two, used to wash dishes and was working in the kitchen. There were 10 customers in the restaurant on the ground floor of the two-floor building.
He said the kitchen was L-shaped with two exits. “We suspect that Shahbuddin choked and fainted due to the smoke. He did not have burns. The body was found lying between two huge containers,” Srinivas Reddy said.
“We were not informed about anyone being present inside the kitchen or any staff missing by the management. We found him while clearing the building and shifted his body to a hospital for a postmortem examination,” said the DFO.
The fire, said to have been caused by a short circuit, also panicked staff and patients of Mamidipudi Nagarjuna area hospital Malakpet which is located adjacent to the building.
"As per protocol, the patients were evacuated to avoid discomfort from the thick smoke coming from the hotel,” said a Chaderghat police official.
The traffic on the Malakpet-Nalgonda crossroad junction was interrupted due to the mishap.
