Hyderabad: In perhaps the deadliest fire accident in Hyderabad, 17 members of a jeweller’s family, including eight children, died after a raging inferno engulfed a three-storied building in Gulzar Houz on Sunday.Fire officials said that the blaze started around 6 am at an over 100-year-old residential-cum-commercial structure, a stone’s throw away from the Charminar. The building was reduced to ruins in the fire that swept through the premises before being doused about three hours later.While some of the victims succumbed to severe burns, others died due to asphyxiation. They were aged between 2 years and 70 years.Four other family members – two of whom were out on morning chores at the time of the accident – and some workers survived the tragedy.Relatives said that the entire family, living in different parts of Hyderabad, had gathered at their ancestral home in Gulzar Houz for the weekend where one of the deceased and head of the family, Prahlad Modi, lived with his wife Munni. According to neighbours, the family migrated to Hyderabad from Rajasthan during the Nizam’s era and had been living in the same locality since then.Fire officials suspect the blaze started due to a short circuit in the main electrical panel on the ground floor that houses three jewellery stores run by the family. One of them dates back to 1906. All the three were gutted in Sunday’s inferno.“The short circuit in the main electrical line, which spread through the wooden panel and sparked a blast in the compressor unit of one of the air-conditioners, which resulted in the spread of the fire. Since the building has only one entrance and exit, and the staircase is extremely narrow, the residents were trapped inside and could not escape in time. The billowing smoke from the fire made it even more difficult for them to navigate their way out of the building,” Y Nagi Reddy, director general, fire services dept told TOI.According to him 11 fire tenders, one fire-fighting robot, 17 fire officers and 70 personnel were pressed into service. It took the team two hours to extinguish the fire, rescue the trapped people, and prevent the fire from spreading.Denying claims by family members about a delay in reaching the spot, Reddy said: “We received a call around 6.16 am and immediately rushed our teams to the scene of the fire.”Charminar police filed a fire accident case based on a complaint from one of Prahlad Modi’ s relative, Utkarsh.Though the 17 victims were rushed to different hospitals – Osmania General Hospital, Apollo Hospital and Yashoda Hospital – they were all declared dead on arrival.“Five victims were received at Apollo Hospital, Hyderguda, and two victims at Apollo Hospital, DRDO. All had severe burns and inhalation injuries and could not be revived,” read a statement from the hospital.Their final rites were held at different locations later in the evening.Locals and eyewitnesses recalled that they heard screeches from the house and rushed to the site.“But by the time we reached, the entire building was up in flames. There was no hope,” said Mir Zahid, a local.Expressing shock, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of each deceased from the PM’s National Relief Fund.“Deeply anguished by the loss of lives due to a fire tragedy in Hyderabad, Telangana. Condolences to those who have lost their loved ones. May the injured recover soon. An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. The injured would be given Rs 50,000,” PM Modi posted on his X handle.Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy too announced financial aid of Rs 5 lakh ex-gratia to the families of accident victims.Locals and public representatives, meanwhile, called for strengthening of the fire department with new age tools and urged the civic body to curb the mushrooming of illegal structures with no adequate fire safety norms or equipment, to avoid such accidents in the future.