Family worried about fate of Kerala engineer

Kuwait fire tragedy: India counts its losses

Kollam/Pathanamthitta

(Kerala), June 13

The family of Sajan George, an MTech graduate and a chemical engineer working in Kuwait, was worried as he was not taking calls after the fire accident in a building in the Gulf nation.

Though official confirmation was pending from the authorities there, friends informed his father that Sajan was likely to have been in the building at the time of the incident. “The family had spoken to him the day before… However, yesterday they did not get any call. Friends there said he was in the building,” a relative told the media, sobbing. Sajan, a Punalur resident and a teacher in Kerala, went to Kuwait only a month ago.

“As there was no confirmation, the family did not inform his mother. But this morning, she came to know after people started visiting the house,” a relative said. His family members said he had sent some money to his family from the first salary he received.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Thursday visited the house of Akash S Nair (32) in Pandalam. He is suspected to have been killed in the fire that resulted in the death of 49 persons, among them 45 Indians. The minister announced all possible assistance would be extended to those affected due to the tragic accident in Kuwait. She was accompanied by Deputy Speaker Chittayam Gopakumar.

Akash, who is survived by his mother Shobha Kumari, was attempting to escape from the fire when he succumbed to the smoke, sources said. He had been employed in Kuwait for the past eight years and had returned to Kerala on leave only a year ago. He was working on a highway supermarket project.

The incident happened in a building in the southern city of Mangaf which killed 49 foreign workers, including around 40 Indians, and injured 50 others.