Fire erupts at Hyderabad’s Minerva Grand Hotel in Himayathnagar

Hyderabad: There could be innumerous causes for a fire accident to happen, especially when it involves a food and beverage establishment. One such fire accident happened on Sunday night at the Hotel Minerva Grand in Hamayathnagar, but fortunately the flames were extinguished in no time.

Hotel Minerva, formerly Minerva Coffee Shop has been an iconic restaurant for the city dwellers since the 90s. On Sunday night, residents living close to the hotel witnessed huge flames emerging out of the top floor of the hotel, where the chimneys of the restaurants are located.

Fearing that the flames could be coming out of the kitchen in one of the hotel’s restaurants, videos were making rounds. But the situation on the ground was different.

It turned out to be flames caused by the residues of oil trapped on the walls of the chimneys that had accumulated over time, suddenly causing the fire.

Though the flames emerging from the chimneys looked like a major fire accident from the outside, there was no damage in the kitchens.

There were three chimneys on a structure constructed above the fifth floor where the hotel’s staff reside.

The fire broke out from two of the chimneys, one emerging out of the coffee shop located on the ground floor, and another from a restaurant located on the second floor.

According to Sandeep, a staff member, informed Siasat.com that the fire fighters reached the spot immediately and doused the flames in the chimneys from the top floor.

While the fire emerging from the chimney of the restaurant was immediately extinguished with water, another chimney was still spitting out fire (though not visible from outside) by 10 pm.

At around the same time, an event was happening at the fifth floor of the hotel. Everything seemed normal, as the guests were having a good time, and though being well aware of the fire accident, neither the staff, nor the guests panicked.

However, this was a wake-up call for many food and beverage establishments which still don’t follow proper fire safety guidelines in Hyderabad and elsewhere, because fire can break out due to many factors which may sound strange to many.