Fire breaks out in Salar Jung Museum, exhibits safe

A fire broke out in the auditorium of the Salar Jung Museum on the morning of November 3, gutting furniture and some carpets.

However, miraculously, the priceless antiquated exhibits on display at the third biggest museum in the country were left untouched by the flames.

The fire was noticed around 7 am in the western block and four fire tenders rushed to the museum. The museum has some of the rare and finest exhibits in the world.

Officials sought to allay apprehensions of the exhibits being damaged by asserting that only some furniture, carpets and the false deiling were gutted.

Museum director A. Narender Reddy said that it was estimated that the fire caused a loss of Rs. 10 lakhs. Museum officials suspect that electrical short–circuit to be the cause of fire, which was confined to the store and cultural auditorium on the first floor of the museum complex. However, since the fire was confined to the western block, the collection in the museum was not damaged.

The porcelain gallery on the first floor of the building, the art gallery which houses priceless paintings and the Nizam's jewellery kept in the Eastern Block were safe.

Security staff alerted the fire station at Moghulpura, which dispatched a fire tender immediately. Later, five more fire tenders were pressed into service. It took about 3 hours to douse the flames.

"Perhaps because of the short circuit and power failure, the fire alarm system in the auditorium did not work," Reddy said. "We will learn a lesson from this and will take immediate measures for fool–proof fire safety at the museum."

Meanwhile, Hyderabad district collector R. Chandravadan said that the museum did not seem to have enough fire extinguishers and equipment to deal with such fire mishaps. The government has ordered a detailed inquiry.

"Ideally, such priceless antiques should be kept in fire–resistant safes," said director–general (fire services) Alok Srivastava. "We have submitted a report on the fire to the government."

The museum has over 43,000 art objects and 50,000 rare books, most of them collected by Nawab Turab Ali Khan, popularly known as Salar Jung I, the Diwan of the Hyderabad.