HYDERABAD, July 12: A godown of shoes was gutted by a fire here on Wednesday night.

A stock of Rs1.5 to Rs2 million had been burnt to ashes in the fire, its owner Mohammad Iqbal said on Thursday.

He said the fire had started from ground floor, engulfed 11 separate portions of the godown’s ground floor. It spread to the upper storey and destroyed another 11 compartments upstairs.

He said the fire had burnt stocks in 22 of the 30 portions. He said he had closed his shop which was attached with the godown at 9pm.

He received calls from other shopkeepers that smoke was emitting from his shop. He rushed to the shop and contacted fire brigade. Fire tenders rushed to the spot and extinguished it at 4.30am.

He said he had no enmity with anyone and there was no short-circuit because there was no power at that time when the fire had broken out. He is a local supplier for different companies and had stocks for the forthcoming Eid.

He is also chairman of the Wholesale Footwear Group.

He lamented that he had several orders not only from Hyderabad but also from other districts. He said that almost 80 per cent stocks had been reduced to ashes.

“Our shop has been dealing in retail and wholesale for 60 years but no such incident took place to date.

I am surprised to see such a fire,” he said.

He ruled out any terror attack as he does not have suspicion against anyone.

Chief Fire Officer of Taluka Municipal Administration (TMA) City Akram Rajput said that when they reached the spot, the fire had gutted shops on the ground floor and some part on the upper storey.

Fire fighters were called from other stations too to control the fire.

They faced difficulty because of narrow space on road but they reached there in 15-20 minutes because bazaar was closed.

He hinted at short circuit because the shop had been closed during the power. “Some salesman might have forgotten to switch off power in the godown,” he said.