Mumbai: Nine people died as a fire broke out on the Bandra-Dehradun Express around 2.30 am on Wednesday morning. The fire engulfed three coaches of the train just a few of hours after it left Mumbai's Bandra Railway Terminus. The flames caught the sleeping passengers unawares resulting in the tragedy.
"My father was trying to pull the chain but he couldn't make it due to the smoke. His preliminary
reports say he inhaled smoke," said Parth Upadhyay, whose father was among the dead.
"There was so much pressure and people were suffocated. I managed to escape but my co-passenger could not," said a survivor, Mehul Shah.
The death toll could have been higher had not the gateman been alert. He was the first to spot the flames. "The fourth bogie from the end caught fire. I saw the smoke, I showed the red light and alerted the guard," said gateman Jawahar Singh.
"We have ordered a CRS enquiry," said Sharat Chandrayan, CPRO, Western Railway.
The fire is believed to have broken out in the vestibule connecting S4 and S3 sleeper coaches.
Flames then spread rapidly to the adjoining S2 coach. The dense smoke suffocated passengers, as the glass windows were shut leaving no chance for the smoke to be controlled.
This is the second fire incident in a running train in a month. Coming just 10 days after 23 died in a fire onboard the Bangalore-Nanded Express, this latest mishap has once again underscored railway's abysmal record of ensuring passenger safety.
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