NEW DELHI, Aug 26: At least 10 people, including three women, all tourists from Uttar Pradesh, were charred to death after a fire broke out in a railway coach, in which they were sleeping, stabled near Madurai Railway junction, early on Saturday morning. Eight others were injured in the blaze.
An initial probe revealed that a gas leak from an LPG cylinder that the tourists had used to make tea inside the coach, had triggered the fire at around 5.30 a.m. While eight of the bodies have been identified, the identity of remaining are pending.
District administration officials said the bodies have been taken to the Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH), while the injured have been admitted to the Railway Hospital and the GRH.
Tamil Nadu Minister for Commercial Taxes P. Moorthi, District Collector M.S. Sangeetha, Madurai Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), P. Anant, and senior officials from the police, fire and rescue services rushed to the spot.
According to the DRM, a tour operator had booked one sleeper class coach from Lucknow, and the coach had been attached to different trains en route to various tourist destinations. A total of 55 tourists, as well as eight support staff of the tour operator had travelled in the coach.
After visiting Kanniyakumari and the Padmanapuram Palace on Friday, the coach was then attached to the Punalur-Madurai Express. The train arrived at the Madurai Railway Junction on Saturday morning and was left on the stabling line on the Bodinayackanur track, some 800 metres south of the junction, the DRM said.
Vijay Kumar, Deputy Director, Fire and Rescue Services Department, said the fire call was received around 5:45 a.m. The DRM said since the doors of the coach were locked from the inside with additional padlocks, the tourists and the others had been trapped inside after the blaze broke out. “Since no one knew who had the keys, the passengers had to break open the lock to try and escape,” he said. By the time this was done however, some of the passengers had suffered serious burn injurious.
A few utensils, including pressure cookers, plastic drums and mangled cooking gas cylinders, were found lying outside the coach after the fire was put out. A fire-fighter said the high-rise compound walls on both sides of the stabling line prevented the tenders from getting close to the coach, which proved challenging when battling the flames.
The tourists had left Lucknow on August 17, and were scheduled to return on August 29. They were slated to visit the Meenakshi temple in Madurai on Saturday and also stop in at Rameswaram and Chennai before going back home.
Superintendent of Police (T.N. Railways) T Senthil Kumar said that a case of accidental fire would be filed. A gas cylinder has been taken from the spot. After getting a forensic report, a further course of action would be ascertained.
An ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh has been announced for the families of the deceased. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday announced an ex-gratia of ₹ 3 lakh for the families of those killed in the fire accident. Stalin, who was on a field inspection in Nagapattinam district on Saturday, said he was deeply anguished to hear about the death of 10 persons in the accident. He said he has advised the Madurai Collector to ensure special medical care at the Government Rajaji Hospital for those injured in the accident.
Expressing his deep condolences to the kin of the deceased, he said efforts were being made to take the bodies of those killed in the accident to their hometowns. He said he has also asked Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration P. Moorthy to visit the spot and arrange for necessary help.
(Manas Dasgupta)