Baripada victims still in shock

Doctors said that though many of those who suffered various degrees of burns were conscious and responding to treatment, but they were not in a position to speak because of the shock.

Dr Subash Mohanty says about 30 of the 81 patients patients have sustained less than 50 per cent burns. The rest had 50 to 70 per cent burn injuries. However, the chances of survival for the critically injured patients can only be determined only after 10 days, Dr Mohanty said.

The authorities have no idea what caused the fire that killed about 200 devotees of Swami Nigamananda inside their thatched camp at Madhuban Sunday. Some survivors did not rule out the possibility of sabotage.

Ashoke Kumar Routray, a teacher at the Nuapara high school in Rajnagar, who was staying in Camp No 3, where the fire was first sighted, said the previous day an argument had taken place between some local people and conference volunteers when two local girls were refused entry into the conference area.

Routray, who sustained serious burns on his back, said the matter was settled when camp volunteers apologised. But he said the locals had reportedly threatened to set the camp on fire. Many survivors pooh-poohed the authorities' suggestion that the fire could have been electrical in origin as the organisers used to switch off the power during the day.

The survivors, however, squarely blamed the authorities for not sending fire tenders in time. The only fire tender at the venue had no water. By the time two more reached the spot, there wasn't a fire to put out, they said.