"Unable to breathe properly I woke up suddenly only to see the fire engulf the S-11 coach which I had boarded at Vijayawada,' recalls A Bharat, a TCS employee.
Bharat, along with two friends Naveen and Gowtham Krishna, all are residents of Vijayawada, boarded Tamil Nadu Express at Vijayawada to reach Chennai where they are working at TCS. The three colleagues, who are in their early twenties, visited their home town to spend the weekend with their families.
“Our berths were not confirmed but the TTE allotted berths to us at our request in S-11 coach which proved fatal to one of us. Though the body of Gowtham Krisna is yet to be identified, there seem no chances of survival of those found missing from the train,' the two survivors say.
Bharat says that he was allotted berth number 33 and Naveen berth number 40. Though he is unable to recollect the berth number of Gowtham Krishna, he thinks the number is higher than theirs, may be close to 70 from where the fire is suspected to have broken out.
“ I thought of pulling the chain but immediately one do it close to me, jumped out and run to save his life. The doors were not opening as all of them pressed themselves to the doors. Somehow, they opened one door and jumped out. The coach reverberated with screams and yells for help. Within minutes there was eerie silence that meant those inside must have died. About 20 passengers jumped off the train to safety. Naveen and I escaped unhurt. Every one who jumped to safety was in a state of shock for 15 minutes.
There was no chance of attempting to save the insiders as it all happened in less than five minutes,” Bharat recalls.
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