A year after a devastating fire that wiped out 17 members of a pearl trader’s family in Gulzar Houz near the historic Charminar, the blackened legacy home still stands barricaded, frozen in time amid the bustle of the old city.The soot-stained structure, once home to three generations including five brothers and their families of the Modi household, now remains inaccessible even to surviving family members as the investigation into the tragedy continues. For the family, closure remains elusive a year later.“The house is in shambles. The investigation is still underway, and our home is still in police custody. We have requested the authorities multiple times to give us access to our home, but we have not received any response. Why take so long for this? We already have gone through a lot of pain, and this wait is adding to our suffering,” said Sunil Modi, one of the five brothers who survived the inferno.
Jewellers shut their shops at Gulzar Houz after the fire.
| Photo Credit:
Siddhant Thakur
Now living about eight kilometres away in a newly-constructed house in Attapur, Sunil said the past year had been about learning to live with loss.On May 18, 2025, a fire broke out at a jewellery shop on the ground floor of the family’s two-storey building and rapidly spread upwards into the residential floors where family members were asleep.By the time firefighters managed to enter the smoke-filled structure, 17 people, including eight children, had died due to suffocation and smoke inhalation.
