Property worth several lakhs of rupees was gutted when fire broke out at a greeting cards store at Osmangunj in Hyderabad early on Tuesday. However, no casualties were reported in the incident.

Locals noticed smoke coming out of the Pooja Card Centre, a wholesale greeting cards and decoration material store, located at Risallah Abdullah in Osmangunj at around 8 a.m. Greeting cards, thermocol sheets, fancy decoration items and other material were stored on the floor. The flames fast spread to the upper three floors of the building.

On being alerted a fire tender from nearby Gowliguda fire station rushed to the place and began the fire fighting operation. Soon four more fire tenders joined in the exercise. It was at around 12 noon that the officials could completely control the fire.

“A lot of combustible material was stored on the premises. Luckily we controlled the fire before it spread to adjacent shops in the area which also deal in paper products,” Assistant District Fire Officer (South) T. Srinivas said. Fire officials suspect short circuit to be the cause of the mishap.