Mir Zahid (second from right) and his four friends rushed into the burning building to rescue the inhabitants

After their morning Namaz, Mir Zahid and his four friends were on their way to get a cup of chai near Charminar when two distraught women came running towards them, pleading for help.“They just kept screaming — bhaiya bacha lo, mera family ander hai (brother please save my family…they are trapped inside). But by the time we rushed to the spot, the entire building was covered in thick smoke,” said Zahid, a local bangle shop owner.The five men were the first to reach the accident site at around 6.10 am — even before the fire tenders arrived.“With the help of some other locals, we had to break down the shutter entrance of the adjacent shop and also a portion of its wall — using hammers and other tools — to get inside this house. It took us about 30 minutes,” said Zahid, adding that the fire personnel reached the site by the time they managed to get in.Recounting the horrific sights that he encountered, the trader said. “We helped the firemen pull out 13 people — from the first and second floors — but all of them were either burnt severely or were gasping for breath. There were elderly people and really small kids. We used bedsheets to bring them out.”According to the men, it took time to reach the victims because the area was “too hot” and difficult to “step foot into”. “We had to wait for a while before we could go inside. The fire was massive,” Zaid added.