‘We broke a wall to get in’: men returning from namaz turn saviours in Hyderabad blaze
Just minutes after offering their morning namaz, Mir Zahed and Mohd Azmath were walking past the building near Gulzar Houz when they heard screams from two women. Smoke was billowing from the upper floors of the house, and panic had gripped the narrow lane.
“We saw two women crying, saying there was a fire and people were stuck inside,” recalled Zahed. Without a moment’s hesitation — and before the first fire tenders had even arrived — the duo barged into the building, determined to help. They recounted how they broke two walls to reach the room where they found women and children trapped due to the fire. What they encountered was gut-wrenching. On the first floor, a woman was found clutching five to seven children in a desperate embrace — all of them lifeless. “It’s something I’ll never forget,” Mr. Zahed said.
