In a major tragedy, as many as 26 people, including two children, were charred to death in the wee hours of Saturday after a major fire ripped through an AC coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express train. Thirteen people suffered injuries.
The fire broke out in the AC 3-tier coach B-1, fourth from the engine, near Sri Satya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam railway station, about 170 km northeast of Bangalore, at 3.45 am. The train had left Bangalore at 10.45 pm on Friday for Nanded in Maharashtra with 16 coaches, South Western Railway said.
In all, 39 of the total 65 passengers in the coach managed to jump out or escape by breaking open the windowpanes of the toilet cabins. However, some of them lost their loved ones on board.And had it not been for the alert driver, reports said, the toll could have been much higher. The driver stopped the train near Kothacheruvu station after noticing the fire following which the ill-fated coach was detached, preventing the fire from spreading.
Also, Charan, a resident of Bangalore, saved 20 other passengers from the bogie but his wife and father-in-law were consumed by the fire, AP Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy, who hails from the district, said. A two-year-old baby girl is among the dead.
Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, who rushed to the accident spot, said 26 people have died and the bodies have been sent for forensic examination and kept in a hospital in Bangalore for identification. He announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh for grievous injuries and Rs 50,000 for simple injuries.
He said nine bodies had been identified and efforts were on to find out the kith and kin of the victims through the addresses given by them or using the mobile phones. SP of Guntakal Railway Police Janardhan said 13 people were injured in the mishap.
Kharge announced an enquiry by Railway Safety Commissioner to unearth “what are the lapsesIJ How it happened, lack of maintenance or negligence of staff or faulty electricity”. Quoting preliminary reports, Kharge, who described the incident as “tragic and most unfortunate”, said a short circuit could have caused the fire but the enquiry would throw the light on the exact cause.
Railway Board Chairman Arunendra Kumar said prima facie there could be two reasons -- one is short circuit and the other presence of inflammable material. “Preliminary reports indicate that the cause of the fire was electrical short circuit near the Air-Conditioning Unit,” said Andhra Director General of Police B Prasada Rao.
Ramamurthy, one of the survivors, said he was suddenly shaken from his deep slumber as smoke and fire engulfed the compartment.“I saw panic-stricken people scrambling towards the door, all trying to get out. I managed to get out when the train stopped,” he said. “It was like Agni Kund,” said MB Patil, who along with his son who had a narrow escape. “It was all over in 15 minutes,” he said and described the experience as “terrible”.
Forensic teams from Hyderabad collected samples for analysis from the mishap site. later, the bodies were brought to Government-run Victoria Hospital in Bangalore.