A major fire in a perfumes and cosmetics godown led to some tense moments for residents of nearby apartments who had to run for safety as perfume bottles exploded and flew in the air. The godown was completely destroyed in the fire while a couple of houses were partially damaged.

Fire broke out in a godown located in a single-storeyed house at Nacharam on Thursday around 2 p.m. With the heat generated by the fire, the highly inflammable perfume bottles started to explode and were flung into the air and fell in adjacent buildings. “There are two high-rise apartments located on either side of the godown and panic spread among residents with the bottles flying in the air,” Malkajgiri station fire officer R Samba Murthy said. One flying bottle hit a fireman GV Chalapathi who suffered a minor injury while a Home Guard, Maddireddy was also injured.

Samba Murthy said the doors of a couple of houses in the Sri Sai Teja apartment abutting the godown also caught fire. Residents hurriedly shifted their LPG cylinders to safe areas and ran out of their houses. “Luckily, we managed to escape unhurt even though there was chaos all around with the flying bottles and smoke,’’ Venkatramulu, a local said. According to reports, the fire broke out when some workers were disposing off some expired cosmetic bottles.

Three workers, Ravi, Srinivas and Venkatesh got trapped inside when the fire started but locals rescued them by pulling them out through a window. They suffered minor injuries. Another youngster, who was resting on the first floor of the godown jumped from the terrace and got injured.

Fire tenders from Malkajgiri, Moulali, Secunderabad, Musheerabad and Hayathnagar rushed to the spot and doused the flames within three hours. Fire services personnel and police said the godown is being run illegally in a residential area. According to locals, the house was rented to Padmarao, a cosmetics dealer who was running it since 2008.