Survivors and relatives of victims of the Arpora club fire described the scenes of chaos, fear and tragic loss as the incident claimed 25 lives on Sat urday night. Avi, a survivor from Delhi, said he is still shaken after speaking to a woman who managed to escape but lost three of her sisters and her husband in the blaze. “I am still shivering. She was not even in a position to call her parents. Her two kids were back home in Delhi. One of her newly-wed sisters and her husband had stayed back and didn’t come to Goa,” he said. Avi, who was not at the club at the time, said he has been unable to sleep since hearing about the tragedy. He claimed that rescue operations were delayed. “The lady told me the rescue operation did not start immediately. It took 40 minutes for assistance to arrive. By then everything was over. Around 23 people had died, most of them staffers. Some had joined the job just a day ear lier,” he said. He added that a “pyro gun” was used inside the club, sparking the fire. “Peo ple thought it would be controlled soon, but there was gross negligence. There should have been staff with fire extin guishers or at least a warning sign,” he said. Families of the victims expressed anguish as they identified the bodies. The uncle of Satish Rane, a 27-year-old chef who died in the incident, said, “I have identified Satish’s body along with others I knew. The others were aged around 29–30 years. I do not know how the incident happened, but the bodies had not burnt.” Jayesh Diukar, an employee of the club, said the fire began around 11.45 pm. “I work in the outside section. Some staff told us there was a short circuit and customers were asked to go out. We were busy with orders. When we went inside, we saw the fire had broken out,” he said. He estimated that 60–70 people were inside the club at the time. “We tried to extinguish the fire using water and fire extinguishers but could not succeed. Many people were in the basement when the fire started,” he added. A local resident who rushed to the scene after learning about the fire said, “I saw the news this morning and rushed here. Last night, we only heard a very loud siren but we didn’t realise what had happened. We thought something had happened on the road, nothing se rious. But in the morning we found out that such a big tragedy had occurred… We had just reached our hotel when we noticed reddish flames coming out. When we went to check, the police were already there managing the situation…” “I received a call at 5 am to identify the body. Police instructed me to obtain necessary documentation from local authorities before the body could be released. I reside here in Goa, and the victim was a chef at the club. The first I heard of the incident was through on line media reports.” a relative of Chef from Nepal who was killed in the inci dent.
‘CHAOS, FEAR & TRAGIC LOSS’: SURVIVORSRECOUNT HORRORS OF CLUB FIRE
