It was a few minutes shy of 1 p.m. on Saturday when the breezy calm at the Kochuveli railway station was shattered by piercing screams of “fire!... help.. help!”
Thirty “passengers” on a railway coach ran helter-skelter as thick flames spat out twirls of smoke. Hardly a minute later the frenzied screams were punctuated by the wail of sirens as two fire tenders and a pickup truck full of firemen came careening in. As one fireman wearing special breathing apparatus struggled with a stubborn van door, his colleagues jumped out yanking coiled hoses, yelling for the water to be turned on.
Yet others dove headlong into the burning coach as a dedicated team set about cutting the metal bars of the coach windows. With practised calm, some firemen methodically guided the “passengers” out of the coach. Three who were “injured”and unconscious were quickly taken out through a window and down a ladder slapped on to the side of the coach before being rushed off in stretchers.
Amidst the bedlam, two other teams of the Fire and Rescue Services directed jets of foam and water into the burning coach to bring down the ambient temperature and to douse the flames. All of a sudden one evacuated “passenger” ran back screaming that there was one more person left inside. Two firemen ran back inside the coach and soon emerged with another “passenger” who too was unconscious.
Finally, when the flames surrendered to the gushes of foam and water, the firemen, the “passengers,” including the “injured” and the “unconscious” (all railway staff) gathered around laughing and chatting, taking stock of the fire drill. For the staff of the Southern Railway led by Senior Divisional Safety Officer Vijayakumar, the “fire” was an opportunity to see the nuts and bolts of a fire and rescue operation. And for the firemen led by Assistant Divisional Officer Dileep? Well, it is not everyday that they get to try out their skills on a “burning” rail coach.
What about a real fire on a coach when three fire tenders are not conveniently standing by a few meters away? Now that is something no one wanted to find out the hard way, least of all on a calm Saturday afternoon.
