Prem, 23, the lone survivor in the Bhoiguda fire accident, certainly earned his life.
At around 3.45 a.m., a little after the fire broke out, he tried escaping through the spiral staircase. But, when he failed, he rushed back to the room and jumped out of the window to safety.
“He bent the iron window grill with his hands to thrust his head out, and then his body, to make his way out. And, he was not too skinny,” a police officer told this reporter.
Later, Prem was found only after 5 a.m. “He was all curled up and sleeping, out of shock, near a tea stall in the lane behind. He suffered 20% burns,” the officer said.
While the police shielded the survivor from the media throughout the day at Gandhi Hospital, his presence was required at Gandhi Hospital to identify the victims. Prem was able to identify most of them.
While all the 11 victims were charred beyond recognition, certain identification marks helped and prevented elaborate DNA profiling. Mainly, some necklaces, pendants, rings and metal bracelets, depicting gods and goddesses, helped the identification of bodies. “One of the victims was identified with the help of his misaligned tooth in the upper jaw,” he said.
