20220306 2 bogies on fire, travellers push away other coaches
India Mar 06 2022 “Automobile & Railway”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 0 or unknown Injured : injured 0 or unknown
2 bogies on fire, travellers push away other coaches
Updated: 2022-03-06
A fire broke out in the Saharanpur-Delhi passenger train as it approached the Daurala railway station in Meerut on Saturday
MEERUT: A passenger train on its way to Delhi, carrying hundreds of people, caught fire in UP on Saturday morning. Once it stopped at Daurala station, hundreds of commuters of the 14-bogey Delhi-Saharanpur passenger train got down and pushed the rest of the bogies away from the two burning compartments to prevent them from catching fire and spreading to the engine. It took about three hours to douse the flames. No one was injured.
While officials remained tightlipped about the cause of the incident, passengers travelling in the train said that the transformer in the power engine, present in the middle of the train, caught fire first and spread to the two compartments that were just behind the engine.
The fire was observed by the passengers as well as the gateman after the train left the Sakauti station for Daurala on the outskirts of Meerut at 7am. The distance between the two is around 10km. Later, senior officials, including divisional railway manager (DRM), Dimpy Garg, reached the spot from Delhi.
Amit Jain, a passenger enroute to Delhi on the burning train, said, “A strong smell had started entering the fourth compartment about 4km after the train left Sakauti station. Sakauti is 10km ahead of Daurala station. When we looked out of the window, we saw the power engine attached in between the bogies had caught fire.”
Gateman Islamuddin Ahmad also saw the fire and informed Daurala station authorities. By the time the train had reached Daurala, fire began to spread. The fire extinguishers inside the train were insufficient.
“We helped railway staff break the couplings from both sides of the burning bogies and all of us pushed the remaining bogies away from them. There were hundreds of commuters. All of us joined hands in this task,” said Mohd Aslam, a Saharanpur resident who was also on the train.
Web Source: The Times of India