First responders in Odisha train tragedy: Kid who called up kin to those who opened their stores for food, medicine

Soubhagya Sarangi, 25, who owns a pharmacy store on the ground floor of a building barely 50 metres from the accident site, shows two empty boxes of tetanus injections (each box had 500 doses) which he administered to the survivors.

“I rushed outside when I heard the loud noise. Within a few minutes, people were being rescued and placed on the road near my shop. I started to give them tetanus injections and pain relievers… my neighbors joined in. I also provided bandages and other medicines. I finally went home at 4 am,” says Sarangi.

He says that he must have incurred a cost of about Rs 8,000. “How can I ask for money? Am I not a human being,” he says.

Nilambar Behera, 64, a retired government employee, lives on the first floor of the building which houses the pharmacy store. “We heard a loud crash and rushed out. We cannot describe what we saw. People were crying for help. We jumped in,” says Behera.

His family provided food and shelter to about 50 children who were among those rescued. “They were 14-15 years old, from Patna. We kept them on our terrace and fed them. They were with us till the next morning. We handed them to the authorities the next day,” says Behera’s wife, Rinamani (50).

Their son, Chandan Kumar, who runs a tuition centre, was among those who rushed to rescue those trapped. “Two of my friends were in the train. They managed to call me on my cellphone, and I went to look for them. I was able to rescue them, they were both injured… Then there were so many others. While I was trying to bring out a couple of others, I suffered a deep cut on my right foot. I had to get stitches… We were there all night,” he says.

Their neighbour, Jhulan Das, whose husband works in the Railways, provided first-aid to the survivors, while her 12-year-old son, Riddhiman, helped the injured contact their families.

“So many of them had gathered near our house. My mother was providing first-aid to the injured… I made phone calls to the relatives of the injured… They were frantic,” says Riddhiman.

Opposite their house is Laxmi Stores, a grocery store owned by Mahesh Kumar Gupta, 58, who supplied free drinking water and dry food. “Initially, I closed the store to help in rescue operations. But I later kept the shop open till late night, supplying water and dry food,” says Gupta.

About 100 metres from Gupta’s shop at Bahanaga Bazar, Soumyaranjan Lulu, 33, also a shop owner, recalls how he and some others climbed onto the derailed coaches and broke open windows to rescue those trapped inside.

“People were shouting for help. We took an iron rod and broke open a window. We dragged out as many as we could. I didn’t count how many. Two of them died on my shoulders. I left them on the road and went back in,” he says.

“We took water pouches and poured it on the injured passengers. Dismembered bodies lay around them,” says Harihar Mohanty, 55, another shop owner.

On the other side of the accident site, in Kamarpur village, Pratap Singh, 45, a mason, says they hand-stitched empty cement bags to make ‘stretchers’ to carry the injured.

“We rushed to the site on hearing the loud noise. People were shouting for help. We didn’t have stretchers to carry the injured, so we stitched empty cement bags. I borrowed a gas-cutter from my friend and tried to open a compartment,” says Singh.

His neighbor Lily Hansda, 28, also a labourer, was among the villagers who helped in rescue operations. “We tried our best to rescue as many as possible. Many were already dead. Many had their arms and legs dismembered… We worked there till morning,” he says.

“Police and official rescue teams came much later… My clothes were red with the blood of the injured,” says Bhagaban Hembram, 35, a farmer.

“It was not just our village. People from the surrounding villages and Bahanaga market area were the first to reach,” says Satyanarayan Mullick, 30, a labourer.