OREANDA-NEWS. November 22, 2011. In Jharkhand, 7 persons died in a fire incident involving 13009 Howrah-Dehradun Doon Express between Nimiya Ghat and Parashnath stations in Giridih district under Dhanbad Railway Division of East Central Railway at about 02.35 hours on 22/11/2011.

While the train was on run, fire broke out in Three Tier Air Conditioned Coach B1, positioned 8th from train engine. Subsequently, it also spread to adjacent Three Tier AC Coach B2. As a result of the fire, the two coaches got completely burnt. In this unfortunate incident, 7 passengers lost their lives.

Medical Relief was immediately dispatched through Accident Relief Medical Train from Dhanbad. Fire Brigades from Dhanbad and Giridih reached the site and extinguished the fire. Divisional Railway Manager, Dhanbad rushed to the site along with his team of officers to supervise the relief and rescue operations. Senior officers from Zonal headquarters at Hajipur also reached the site. A team of officers from Railway Board was also dispatched to accident site. Stranded passengers have since been transported towards the destination.

Minister of Railways, Shri Dinesh Trivedi has expressed deep condolences to the bereaved families.

Minister of Railways, Shri Trivedi also announced, on humanitarian grounds, enhanced ex-gratia amount of Rs. 5 lakh to the next of the kin of each deceased and Rs. 25,000/- to each passenger of the affected B1 and B2 coaches to provide immediate relief for inconvenience and loss of belongings.

The statutory inquiry into this incident has been ordered to be conducted by Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), Eastern Circle, under the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

The General Managers of all Zonal Railways have been instructed to exercise extra vigil as well as launch a special safety drive regarding precautions to be taken to avoid recurrence of such accidents.