Train mishap: DGP says fire due to short circuit

Hyderabad: Director general of police B. Prasada Rao said that the fire in the Nanded-Bangalore express train in Anantapur district that killed 26 people and left eight people injured occurred due to a short circuit in the air conditioning unit.

Railway authorities are not ready to accept this as the cause and have not ruled out the presence of inflammable material on board the train. “Preliminary reports indicate that the cause of the fire was electrical short circuit near the air conditioning unit. The mishap took place between 3.20 am and 3.30 am,” the DGP said.

26 die in train blaze

A major fire ripped through an AC coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express train, roasting alive 26 people, including two children, and injuring 13 others early on Saturday.

The fire has been attributed to a short circuit in the AC unit, according to preliminary reports. However, a forensics team has reportedly and collected samples of “five bottles with an oily substance”.

The coach was carrying 69 passengers, most of them sleeping, at the time of the mishap. Almost 10 victims were from Andhra Pradesh, and the others from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Fire engulfed Coach B-1 at about 3.35 am after the train left the Satya Sai Prashanti Nilayam station on the Bengaluru division of South Western Railway. The train was stopped almost immediately at a small village, Kothacheruvu, after passengers pulled the chain and stopped the train.

Woken up from their sleep by the fire, passengers rushed to the doors but found these jammed due to the heat. 

Next: Victim kin get no answers

Victim kin get no answers

Prakruti Koratagere/DC

Bangalore: Chaos and confusion reigned as distraught relatives flocked to Victoria Hospital mortuary seeking information about their loved ones, who were onboard the ill-fated compartment of the Bangalore-Nanded Express that caught fire in the early hours of Saturday in Anantpur district, killing 26 people.

The charred bodies were sent back to Bangalore in ambulances and they arrived at Victoria Hospital around 4 pm, where the identities of the deceased were to be ascertained through DNA verification.

However, several people complained that the initial information provided to them by authorities was vague and that they had no way of knowing whether their loved ones were safe or not. “My sister-in-law, Asra, her two-and-a-half year old son Mohammed and her brother-in-law Ibrahim Rahi were seated in B14 and 15. They were excited when were left home for their hometown, Raichur. But now we do not even know if they are alive. Since we heard the news on Saturday morning, we tried calling them a hundred times, but didn’t get through. Their names are not even mentioned on the list of the dead and injured people that the authorities showed us. We don’t know where to go,” lamented Dr Imran, a close relative.

Kin of another passenger, Raichur native Subhash Reddy Patil, were troubled by lack of validation. Subhash, who is the director of the Karnataka State Cooperative Federation, reportedly boarded the train on Friday night and informed his family in Raichur that he was coming home.

“The last contact Subhash had with his family was around 10 pm when he called to tell them that though he was unable to book a ticket, he managed to get in after being in the waiting list and would reach home soon. He was wearing a gold bracelet and a pendant.  However, his phone has been switched off since news of the fire broke and we have been unable to reach him,” said Yeshwanthpur MLA S.T. Somashekar, who visited the mortuary.

According to railway officials, additional DRM, Bengaluru division, Sunanda Arul, is the co-ordinating officer available at Victoria Hospital. She can be contacted on 9731666001 for any assistance.