Tributes paid to Dabwali fire tragedy victims

Deepender Deswal

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Tribune News Service

Hisar, December 26

A large number of people turned up here today for a blood donation camp organised as a tribute to the victims of the Dabwali fire tragedy, an incident that had claimed 442 lives at a school function on December 23, 1995. Among the dead were 173 children, all below 10 years.

Blaze killed 173 kids

• The fire that engulfed a makeshift tent during a school function left 442 dead
• Among the victims were 173 children below 10 yrs of age
• Almost every family in Dabwali was affected by tragedy

It was perhaps the most heartrending day for not only Dabwali, but the entire country as hundreds of students of local DAV Public School and their parents, who had gone to attend the school’s annual day function, got trapped in the fire. The function was being held in a makeshift tent, which caught fire probably due to short-circuit. Almost every family in the town was affected and the scars of the tragedy are visible even today.

Though a remembrance function is held every year in Dabwali on December 23, a self-help group, Surbhi Manav Kalyan Samiti, on Sunday organised the blood donation camp to mark the 26th anniversary of the incident.

The group was constituted in the memory of five-year-old Surbhi who was among the victims, said founder member Surender Narang. She was the daughter of Anil Kumar Rao, adviser to the Haryana Chief Minister on public safety and good governance. A 1994-batch IPS officer, he retired as ADGP in 2020. Incidentally, Rao was then posted as Dabwali DSP and was present at the function and his daughter was about to perform on the stage when the fire broke out. “Rao had joined in Dabwali only four days before the tragedy. He suffered nearly 40 per cent burns and saved several children, but couldn’t save his own daughter,” said Narang.

It was the group’s fourth blood donation camp and 90 units were collected. Interacting with the donors, Rao appreciated the gesture.

Vinod Kumar Bansal, a municipal council member in Dabwali, had lost his wife Renu and children Nancy (6) and Himanshu (3.5). The general secretary of the Dabwali Fire Accident Victims Association, Bansal recalled how hundreds of lives were lost within minutes.

“The scars can never be healed. The memories haunt me as well as other survivors,” he said, stressing the need for fire safety awareness in schools and other institutions so that such tragedies didn’t recur.