Arvind Nair/Gulf Times
 
Doha, Jun 20: Five Sri Lankan men were charred to death on Wednesday night as they slept in their room in a downtown apartment.

Two of their friends have been admitted to Hamad Hospital with serious burn injuries. Two others jumped to safety from their second storey apartment.

Nine of them were sleeping in one room as the fire engulfed it, the charge d’affaires at the Sri Lankan embassy, A Dharmakulasingham, said.

The charred remains of the ill-fated house, which claimed the lives of five Sri Lankans

The police have identified the dead as Thushitha Ananda Abeywickrama (from Ambilipitiya), Roshan Thushitha Kumara (Akurassa), Nimal (Chilaw), Amila Madusanka (Bulathsinhala) and Nalinda Kumara (Thambuthegama).

They all belonged to the 25-30 age group, the embassy official said.

The two seriously injured Sri Lankans have been admitted to the emergency unit of the Hamad Hospital. They are Dulan Salika Ratnasiri (from Hatton) and Vijitha Aluthgedera (Ginigathhena). Dulan is still in a critical condition while Vijitha is said to be out of danger. 

Those who escaped the inferno at building No. 22, Street No. 4, at Al Maymoon Street in Doha are Nishantha Mangalajeews (from Adhawila, Banagala, Opatha), and Salitha Prasad, (Àthnagoda, Beligala, Kegalle).

The charge d’affaires told Gulf Times that officials of the mission were in constant touch with the authorities and had visited the injured at the hospital.

Bodies of the deceased will be flown to Sri Lanka as soon as legal procedures are completed, hopefully by next week, Dharmakulasingham said.

Those in nearby rooms escaped unhurt as the firemen came and doused the blaze. A total of 35 Sri Lankans were living in the four-room apartment.

According to sources, they all worked for different companies.

According to Lenny Cramer, president of the Sri Lankan Co-ordinating Committee, the fire broke out in the ill-fated room around 11.30pm on Wednesday as the occupants slept after a hard day’s toil.

Those who woke up first tried to wake others but failed to do so. The ever increasing smoke in the room probably had put them to permanent sleep, community sources speculated.

Fellow room-mates had no option but to try and save themselves. Two of them managed to do it by jumping out but two others suffered serious burns in the process. 

The cause of fire has not yet been established, the charge d’affaires said. However, there were speculations of an electric short-circuit.

Yesterday, the Sri Lankan community, led by the co-ordination committee, rallied to help those affected by the fire. The immediate call was to find accommodation for those who were left homeless by the blaze.

As the community leaders sent out e-mails seeking help, the response has been tremendous, Lenny said. All the basic essentials for the victims, who lost everything to the fire, have been collected. They include foodstuff, bed-sheets, clothing, toothpaste and similar stuff.

By yesterday evening, it was decided that half of the stranded people would be accommodated temporarily at the Sri Lankan school while the other half would be put up in a villa.

This is purely a stop-gap arrangement until a more permanent accommodation for them could be found in a couple of days, Lenny said.

This is the third fire in a week, and the second in the same vicinity. The first in the area, however, did not claim any lives though the entire flat was reduced to cinders.

The other fire, which occurred during lunch-time on Tuesday at the Industrial Area, killed a 38-year-old businessman as he took an afternoon nap in his warehouse.