Toll in TN school fire mounts to 80
PTI[ FRIDAY, JULY 16, 2004 06:45:56 PM ]
KUMBAKONAM: Eighty children aged between 8 and 10 years were charred to death on Friday, 20 of them beyond recognition, while over 27 others received serious burns when a major fire ripped through their school in this town of Tamil Nadu's Thanjavur district.
The dead included 27 boys, 33 girls and 20 others who were charred beyond recognition, District Magistrate J Radhakrishnan said, adding of the 27 injured admitted to hospitals, 15 were critical.
Most of the children died on-the-spot and were in the age group of eight to 10, the official, who was on the spot supervising the rescue operation, said.
The fire, which is believed to have started from the kitchen, when the noon meal for nursery children was being prepared, soon spread to a row of thatched roof classrooms where students from class one to class five were present, police and eyewitnesses said.
Five classrooms on the third floor of the Saraswati Nursery School were gutted in the fire that broke out at 11 am. Around 900 students were present in the Sri Krishna Girls High School complex housing primary, middle and high schools.
While the high school and middle school students escaped on noticing the fire, the nursery school children got trapped as the thatched roof collapsed on them making their movement difficult.
Radhakrishnan said that some victims died of suffocation as the exit passage was narrow.
(mods:i'm not sure if it is OK to post this...)
May their souls R.I.P.......
AS Iron Maiden sez...
"Only the good die young:
All the evil seem to live for ever..."
All people smile in da same language. Keep smilin n stay cool... n ye luv alwayzzzzz !!! 
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