Blaze survivor recalls ‘human torch’ horror

QATAR: “He came out of the door like a blazing human torch and collapsed onto the terrace,” said a survivor of Wednesday night’s fire in a Doha apartment, describing the horror of seeing a roommate in flames.

Dulan Salika Ratnasiri, who suffered 79 per cent burns, is in critical condition at the Trauma Intensive Care Unit of Hamad Hospital.

Five sleeping Sri Lankans died in the fire that swept througth their room in a building on Al Maymoon Street in Al Asmakh area.

Nishantha Mangalajeewa, who jumped to safety through a window, said he saw Dulan, engulfed in flames, take a few steps before collapsing.

According to Sri Lankan Co-ordinating Committee (SLCC) officials who visited the hospital, doctors could not give a time frame for Dulan’s recovery.

The condition of his colleague Vijitha Aluthgedera remains stable and he has been transferred to the burns unit at Rumaillah Hospital.

The SLCC team included its President Lenny Cramer, General Secretary Ruwan Lankeshwara, Chief Co-ordinator Nimal Tudewatte and Sri Lanka Community Benevolent Fund (SLCBF) Vice President Tennison Silva.

Recalling the nightmare was all the more harrowing for Nishantha because his brother, Roshan Thushitha Kumara, was among the dead.

“When I saw the fire on waking up, I tried to douse the blaze by covering my brother and the others with bedsheets. But the sheets also caught fire immediately,” he said, trying to hold back tears.

The second-storey room housed nine Sri Lankan labourers.

Police have identified the dead as Thushitha Ananda Abeywickrama (from Ambilipitiya), Roshan Thushitha Kumara (Akurassa), Nimal (Chilaw), Amila Madusanka (Bulathsinhala) and Nalinda Kumara (Thambuthegama). They were 25 to 35 years. Only Nishantha and Salitha Prasad Warnasoorya managed to jump to safety.

They are currently put up in a villa at Abu Hamour, along with those who lived in the other rooms of the burnt-down apartment. Their rehabilitation is being supervised by the SLCC.

All 30 of them now sleep in two rooms and share just two toilets. Mattresses and food have been donated by the community.

The SLCC is desperately looking for another “affordable” accommodation since the villa was supposed to have been vacated last night. The committee has managed to get two days’ extension.

“We appeal to people, whatever their nationality, to please find accommodation for these hapless people urgently,” it said.

The men have lost everything, including their clothing, passports, ID cards and gate passes. Hence they cannot go to work immediately. Transport to the workplace is another problem, one of them said. The SLCC officials said the community had helped out generously.

The families of the dead and injured also needed help, and the committee could put prospective donors in touch with them, they added. Reports in Gulf Times had generated an overwhelming response. “We received more than 100 calls only Saturday. Many of them were non-Sri Lankans,” one of the officials said.

Meanwhile, embassy sources said the bodies would be flown to Sri Lanka as soon as legal procedures were completed, possibly this week

- Gulf Times