Brave teacher helps 20, loses all relatives

Anantapur: Sharana Basava from Teachers’ Colony in Adoni of Kurnool was left heart-broken on Saturday. Though he managed to rescue around 20 passengers from the burning coach after breaking the tough glass of a toilet window, but could not save his wife and father-in-law who were charred to death.

Basava’s mother-in-law survived though she suffered serious injuries.

Both Basava and his wife Sarvamangalamma were teachers. The couple, along with Sarvamangalamma’s father Basavaraju and mother Annapurnamma, had gone to Bangalore to look for a prospective bride for Sarvamangalamma’s brother Prasanna. They returned in the Nanded Express on Friday night.

Basava woke up to rescue

Sarvamangalamma, wife of Sharana Basava who rescued around 20 passengers, and her father Basavaraju were charred to death in the fire while Ms Annapurnamma jumped from the train, suffering serious injuries.

Recalling the incident, Basava said that he was sleeping in berth no. 31 of B1 coach while his wife was in berth no 30 and his father-in-law was in berth no. 27. “When I woke up, I was shocked to see a girl engulfed in flames and half her body was burning.”

Basava alerted the sleeping passengers, including his family, and started looking for an exit. When the doors could not be opened, he rushed into the toilet and tried to break the tough glass.
“We broke the window with an iron mug and with our legs and started sending out the passengers.”

Basav managed to push his mother-in-law out and also jumped out himself. He then started pulling out passengers from the toilet window and tried to get his wife and father-in-law out. Unfortunately due to the stampede to escape, the two were pushed backwards into the bogie. “The passengers pushed themselves out to escape but my wife and father-in-law were burnt alive in front of me,” he said,

Another survivor, Patil, who was travelling with his father, said, “We woke up to screa-ms…everybody was screaming.”

He said that after escaping the inferno, they walked a little distance in pitch darkness to NH44 from where they took a bus to Penukonda. There they boarded another train and reached Bangalore.
“It is as if we have got a second birth,” said Patil.

Next: Passengers from other bogies tried to help

Passengers from other bogies tried to help

Anantpur: The toughened glass windows of the AC compartment proved too tough to break for most passengers travelling in B-1 of Bangalore-Nanded Express. Some managed to break the windows and jumped out.

Ramamurthy, a passenger, said he suddenly woke up as smoke and fire engulfed the compartment and tried to reach the door. “I saw many people struggling to get down from the moving train through the door. After some time the train stopped,” said Mr Ramamurthy from Mysore, who had boarded the train at Bangalore to go to Mantralayam. Passengers from other bogies pitched in but could not do much in the face of intense heat. When it all ended, salvage teams recovered 26 bodies from the coach. Only 10 passengers have been identified so far, and most of the others were charred beyond recognition.

Railway staff delinked the AC coach from both sides to prevent the flames spreading to other bogies. The rest of the train was allowed to resume its journey at 7 am. In a statement, the South Western Railway said that a coach attendant had noticed smoke from one of the bays of the coach and raised an alarm. “The passengers were evacuated and the fire brigade called from Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam town. The coach also had two fire extinguishers and an attempt was made to extinguish the fire by the attendant.”

S. Gupta CPRO, South Western Railway, said, “A thorough maintenance test was carried out. As soon as smoke started coming out after the short circuit, one of the fire extinguishers was used by our attendant present in the coach.”

The Commissioner for Railway Safety will be inquiring into the incident. Forensic Science Laboratory teams led by director A. Sharada, along with district CLUES teams, which rushed to the spot and collected samples at the charred coach found “five bottles with an oily substance.” Usage of air conditioning at unmonitored and low temperatures was cited as the reason for short circuits in the past. An official from the forensic Clues team said, “We have collected all evidences from the bogie.” Experts said that as the short circuit took place at night, inaction could be  reason of the spreading.

Alert driver, stopped fire from spreading

The presence of mind of an alert train driver and railway staff onboard the Bangalore-Nanded Express  prevented the fire in the AC coach from spreading. The railway staffers stopped the train and detached the burning bogie. The fire ripped through the AC coach of the train, burning alive 26 persons, including two children  and injuring 13 others but it did not spread to other bogies.

“Timely action by the train driver and employees ensured that the fire didn’t spread to other bogies. The driver and other staff, after learning about the fire, immediately detached the burning coach from the train and managed to contain the fire,” said  Anantapur district SP S. Senthil Kumar.