Kuwait fire: Family worried about fate of chemical engineer from Kerala

Kollam/Pathanamthitta (Kerala), Jun 13 (PTI) The family of Sajan George, a M.Tech graduate and a chemical engineer working in Kuwait, was worried as he was not picking calls after the fire accident in a building in the Gulf nation.

Though official confirmation was pending from authorities, friends informed his father that Sajan was likely to have been in the building at the time of the incident.

“The family had spoken to him the day before…However, yesterday they did not get any call. Friends there said he was in the building,” a relative told the media, sobbing.

Sajan, a Punalur resident, went to Kuwait just over a month ago. He was a teacher in Kerala.

“As there was no confirmation, the family did not inform his mother but this morning she came to know after people started visiting the house,” a relative said.

His family members said he had sent some money to his family from the first salary he received.

Meanwhile, state Health Minister Veena George on Thursday visited the house of Akash S Nair (32) in Pandalam. He is suspected to have been killed in the fire that resulted in the death of 49 people from various nations.

The minister announced all possible assistance will be extended to those affected due to the tragic accident in Kuwait.

She was accompanied by Deputy Speaker Chittayam Gopakumar.

Akash, son of late Sasidharan, was attempting to escape from a fire in Kuwait when he succumbed to the smoke, sources said.

He had been employed in Kuwait for the past eight years, returning to Kerala on leave only a year ago. Akash was single and working on a highway supermarket project at the time of the accident. He is survived by his mother Shobha Kumari.

According to the Kuwaiti authorities, the incident happened in a building in the southern city of Mangaf which killed 49 foreign workers, including around 40 Indians, and injured 50 others.

The fire started in a kitchen of the seven-storey building housing 195 migrant workers in Mangaf in Ahmadi Governorate early on Wednesday.

The fire erupted just after 4 am when a majority of the 196 all-male residents of the building were asleep. It resulted in huge thick clouds of black smoke that led to the suffocation of most of the victims, according to officials from the Interior Ministry and the Fire department.