‘I kept looking back… hoping they would come’: 5 from Delhi family were at Goa nightclub when tragedy struck, only 1 made it out
Bhavna Joshi lost her husband and 3 sisters in the fire. Within 15 minutes of reaching the club, she said she noticed sparks near the stage.
Goa nightclub fire: The first-floor exit opens onto a narrow bridge on two sides, the front and rear, and is surrounded by khazans – low-lying lands used for agriculture and aquaculture – near the Baga River. (Express Photo)
Replaying the memory of Saturday night’s fire, 40-year-old Bhavna Joshi from Delhi said, “I kept looking back… hoping they would come. They got stuck.”
Her husband, Vinod Kumar, and her three sisters, Saroj Joshi, Anita Joshi and Kamla Joshi, were among the 25 people who died when a fire engulfed a nightclub in North Goa’s Arpora. She managed to make it out of the club — Birch by Romeo Lane — after the fire started, but her four family members did not.
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Speaking over the phone, Bhavna told The Indian Express that her family arrived in Goa on December 5 for a short vacation. They headed to Arpora for dinner on Saturday and entered the nightclub at 11.15 pm.
“Everyone was singing and dancing,” she said.
Within 15 minutes, she said she noticed some sparks near the stage where a DJ had been performing earlier. “I initially dismissed it as some minor electrical issue. In fact, my husband was not panicking, and he informed others that there had been a fire. People tried to put out the fire by pouring water,” she said.
Bhavna said the hall turned into an inferno within a minute, as fire engulfed the premises. “There was so much smoke. And there was no emergency exit.”
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She ran towards the entrance and told her family, “jaldi aao (come quickly)”. “Everyone was pushing each other and climbing over tables. I got pushed to the front. And they got left behind,” she said, adding, “I thought they were right behind me. I kept looking back…”
She said there were no exit doors and that if she had gone towards the basement, she would not have survived. “When I was out, I appealed to everyone to help my family. Kisi ne nhi suni meri (No one offered help). Their bodies were so burnt that I was struggling while identifying them,” she said.
Goa nightclub fire: The first-floor exit opens onto a narrow bridge on two sides, the front and rear, and is surrounded by khazans – low-lying lands used for agriculture and aquaculture – near the Baga River. (Express Photo) 
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