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‘Fire extinguishers didn’t work’: 2 coaches of Udhampur-Durg Express gutted
Udhampur-Durg Express fire: A senior Morena police officer said 116 passengers in the affected coaches were evacuated without any casualties.
BHOPAL/MORENA: A fire broke out in Udhampur-Durg Express in Madhya Pradesh’s Morena district on Friday afternoon allegedly due to a short circuit in one of the train’s washrooms, gutting two air-conditioned coaches and damaging one more, people familiar with the development said.
Lalit Shakyawar, superintendent of police, Morena, said the 116 passengers in the affected coaches were evacuated at the district’s Hetampur railway station. No casualties have been reported, he added.
North Central Railway spokesperson Manoj Kumar Singh said the fire prima facie appears to have started due to a short circuit in a bathroom. An inquiry has been ordered by the divisional railway manager into the incident.
Railway officials in Jhansi said the fire started at about 3.30pm. Attempts were made on the train to extinguish the fire. About 15 minutes later, it was stopped at the Hetampur railway station. The train eventually left at 5.53pm and three coaches were added at Gwalior for the remaining 1,000km journey to Durg in Chhattisgarh, its final destination.
Passengers said the fire, which started around a bathroom in A2 coach, was spotted much before it spread but the fire extinguishers located by the attendants and passengers didn’t work..
Asked about the allegation, the North Central Railway spokesperson said: “Passengers were claiming this but attendants didn’t inform about it. An inquiry will be held in this matter.”
The attendants tried to douse the fire but the fire extinguishers didn’t work... it turned into a massive fire,” said a passenger from Chhattisgarh who requested anonymity. The passenger said the fire spread to A1 and A2 coaches within just about 15 minutes.
Ashwini Kashyap, who was travelling with his family in A1 coach, said, “The fire could have been controlled in time but the fire extinguishers didn’t work. Later, we broke the windows, threw out our luggage and ran out.”
Dr Ghanshyam Parte, who was travelling in the adjoining coach, said some people also fainted, possibly due to panic.
“The smoke was engulfing the bogies but passengers and railway officials broke the glass windows. Passengers were shifted swiftly to other coaches before detaching the affected bogies, he said.
The fire was eventually put out by a team of police and firefighters, the Morena district police chief Shakyawar said. Local residents and villagers also helped out the passengers with food and water.
An emergency medical train from Agra and Gwalior also reached the spot. The coaches were later inspected by a Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) and forensic team to rule out mischief.
(With inputs from Haider Naqvi in Kanpur)
