3 coaches of Sarayu Express catch fire near Jalandhar
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, December 19
Three sleeper coaches of Sarayu Jamuna Express train caught fire at the Kartarpur railway station near here on Wednesday night. Short-circuit is said to be the reason behind the fire.
The incident was reported around 10.30 pm when the train was heading towards Amritsar.
Alert Passenger Saves The Day
- Had Sukhdev Singh not spotted the sparks, passengers wouldn’t have come out of the train unhurt.
- When the train was about to reach Kartarpur, he was in the washroom. When he came out, he smelt something burning.
Later, when he spotted smoke flaring up near a window, he alarmed the rest of the passengers in the coach.
“In no time, the smoke turned into flames and, as the train had reached the Kartarpur station, we all jumped out of it with our luggage,” he said.
The S2 coach, in which the fire broke out, was completely burnt, while S1 and S3 coaches were partially burnt. All seats, electrical equipment, water pipes and toilets tuned into ashes within minutes.
Around 50 to 60 passengers were travelling in the three coaches. Eyewitnesses said 15 passengers in the S2 coach managed to get out of it unharmed.
The train, covering the distance from Jainagar (Bihar) to Amritsar, left the Jalandhar railway station at 10.10 pm and reached Kartarpur in 15 minutes. A joint team of the Kartarpur police division and the Government Railway Police (GRP) safely evacuated the passengers from all three coaches.
Kartarpur police station SHO Pushp Bali said the train was halted at platform number two and a police team immediately reached the station to help passengers alight. Four fire tenders doused the flames within two to three hours.
The Ferozepur Railway Division shut the traffic on the adjoining tracks and, till 1.30 pm, no train was allowed to ply. The passengers were dropped in Amritsar in the same train at night after the burnt coaches were detached.
Meanwhile, Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Ferozepur division, Rajesh Aggarwal, tweeted about the safe evacuation of the passengers. A Joint-Secretary-level inquiry has been ordered to ascertain the cause of fire. A three-member committee will verify all factors.
A forensic team of the Punjab Police also reached the spot on Thursday morning to collect samples.
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