The investigation report into the Madurai train fire, which killed nine pilgrims from Uttar Pradesh on August 26, will take at least a month to complete, said officials.
The commissioner of railway safety, southern circle, Bengaluru, A M Chowdhary, began a statutory inquiry in Madurai on Sunday. “I’ve taken statements from the passengers to know how the fire started and how it spread,” said Chowdhary. He also visited the accident spot. “The inquiry will continue.”
Preliminary enquiry by the railway police has established that the fire started after the passengers lit up a gas stove to make beverages. The tour organiser will be booked in the case for negligence, additional director general of the railway police, V Vanitha had said.
However, one of the deceased Harish Kumar Bhasin, alias Pappu Bhasin, 60 was the said travel agent of the ‘Bhasin Tour and Travels’ whose identity was confirmed by Madurai administration and his family in UP’s Sitapur.
“The expert opinion is that the fire started because they lit up the stove. There was firewood and coal inside the coach,” Vanitha said.
A total of 63 people – 55 passengers and eight helpers – were aboard the private coach, which left Lucknow on August 17. They were on a 13-day pilgrimage and were to visit the famous Meenakshi Amman temple in Madurai and proceed to Rameshwaram before returning to UP. Nine of them died in the fire, and eight had minor injuries. According to railway officials, the fire broke out at 5.15am on August 26 and within 15 minutes fire services swung into action dowsing the flames at 7.15am.
No other trains were damaged, nor were operations hindered, since the blaze broke out when the private coach was parked in the Madurai railway junction bay, away from other vehicles.
The individual coach was entirely gutted and an LPG cylinder along with vegetables such as potatoes were found. “Presently, I don’t see any conspiracy,” Chowdhary said in Madurai responding to a reporter’s question.
Meanwhile, the southern railways on Sunday began sending all the passengers involved in the fire accident with four police escorts via flight from airports in Madurai and Chennai to Lucknow to reach their home town, said the department’s chief public relations officer, B Guganesan.
