Falaknuma Express Fire: Alert AP Passenger Spots Fire, Averts Disaster

Hyderabad: L. Dhavaleshwar Rao from Vizianagaram, who along with his family, was travelling in the ill-fated train turned a saviour for hundreds of fellow-passengers. Travelling in the S4 coach, he first noticed smoke from behind a backpack placed in seat no 3, an upper berth, and immediately pulled the chain.

“I did not know what to do,” he said. Quickly gathering his wits, he jumped into action. “My wife and children started shrieking. Without waiting for a moment, I pulled the chain and alerted others,” he told Deccan Chronicle over phone after reaching Secunderabad railway station.

Rao, a jewellery trader, along with his wife Jamuna Rani, son Sai Mohan, his daughter and her family, started from Vizianagaram on a pilgrimage to Shirdi. They were to take a connection train at Secunderabad.

Jamuna Rani said that since they were visiting Hyderabad for the first time, they had planned to visit some tourist sites and taste the famed Hyderabadi food.

“In fact we were discussing the Hyderabad stopover when I suddenly noticed smoke in the upper berth and informed my family,” she said.

Rao said that they first brought out the family members and went back to get the luggage. But by then there was smoke everywhere and the fire was spreading fast.

“As it was a long pilgrimage, we were carrying many bags. We had to leave them in the train and run to a safer place,” he said.

They went to a relative’s place in the city, from where they will travel to Shirdi after travel arrangements are made by the railways, they said.