TN train fire: Insurance manager turns saviour for fellow passengers

Ram Sudhakar (32), an insurance company manager, turned out to be the hero and saviour of the many passengers of the Tamil Nadu Express on Monday. It was he pulled the chain to bring the train to halt and alerted the other passengers in the ill fated S -11 compartment about the fire.

“I don’t sleep much during train journeys. When I heard a loud noise around 4.15 am and saw flames from the electrical panel near the toilet, I immediately started shouting and pulled the alarm chain and ran across the compartment to wake everyone,” said Sudhakar, a branch manager of United India Insurance who boarded the train at Vijayawada.

He told reporters in Chennai that he was fortunate to have occupied berth no 7 whereas the fire had started in the other end of the compartment. “That gave me enough time to wake others and open one of the doors closest to me,” he said.

Though he jumped out of the slowing train, he returned after hearing someone crying for help from the burning coach. Sudhakar saw an old couple stuck in the coach.  “I pushed them out of the burning coach. However, I later learnt that the woman had died. They lost their daughter also,” he said.

A railway officer said it was Sudhakar who brought the train to a halt. “Had he not stopped the train by pulling the chain, the flames would have spread to other compartments,” he said.