The access to the first and second floors was only one staircase of one metre width, he added.
Reddy said the occupants were sleeping when the fire broke out.
He added that four people who were sleeping on the second floor were rescued using ladders.
Shortly after the fire broke out, Zahid, who is into bangles business in Gulzar House area and an eyewitness of the fire incident told reporters that at around 6.
10 AM when he along with friends were passing by, a woman told them about the fire that erupted in the building and there were family members with children inside.
“As the main door of the building was engulfed in flames, we broke the shutter and also a wall and entered inside. As the blaze was high we went to the first floor. We found seven people in one room and six others in another room. We were not able to save them due to the fire. Had we saved them it would have been good,” he said.
He further said he saw a dead woman hugging some lifeless children.
The fire department said there was no alternate exit staircase/path to the upper floors and since fire started in ground floor, smoke and heat quickly reached upper floors blocking the only available access.
There were no windows or doors facing the available road to use hydraulic platform and quick ventilation.
The Osmania Hospital mortuary, where bodies from different hospitals were sent for autopsy, wore a grim look as relatives burst into tears in shock.
