“Kaun Goa nahi aana chaahta (who doesn’t want to come to Goa)?” asked Ashish Rawat, sitting outside the mortuary of Goa Medical College and Hospital on Sunday.
His cousin, Jitendra Rawat (24), came to the coastal state from their home in Uttarakhand’s Tehri Garhwal district six months ago and got a job as a chef. Jitendra was among the kitchen staff who died in the midnight fire at Birch by Romeo Lane in Arpora on Saturday night.
Of the 25 who perished in the blaze, 21 worked at the restaurant, most of them migrants looking for a modest life, earning anywhere between Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 a month. Many of the family members The Indian Express spoke to said they had no resources to take the bodies back home.
“I heard he and others suffocated to death in the kitchen. No one comes here to die,” Rawat said.
From Uttarakhand to Jharkhand, from Nepal to Assam – the victims were employed as cooks, chefs, or support staff at the restaurant. Preliminary probe suggests that many in the kitchen suffocated as smoke engulfed the club’s basement, leaving them trapped with no exit. The families of almost all the men questioned why they were made to work in a set-up that could so easily become a death trap.
Three migrant workers from Jharkhand were among the dead. They included brothers Binod Mahto (19) and Pradeep Mahto (22) from Lapung in Ranchi, who arrived in Goa a few months ago and did odd jobs in housekeeping before taking up “cutting work” in kitchens.
“They were unmarried and had their whole lives ahead of them,” said Narayan Mahto, their uncle. “Gaon mein bahut gareebi hai (There is a lot of poverty back home). There are no jobs, so the youth have to come here for a livelihood.”
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“We are being told that the blaze was caused by fireworks on the upper deck. My nephews died while doing their jobs, and no one came to rescue them,” he said.
Bikash Munda from Khunti district in Jharkhand, whose younger brother Mohit (18) died in the fire, said, “My father is a farmer. I work in a lounge in Goa, and my brother came here a year ago. I have no words to describe my pain.”
Also among the victims was Churna Bahadur Pun, a 30-year-old chef from Nepal’s Dang district. “At 4 am, one of his colleagues informed me that he suffocated in the fire. It is disturbing that no one came to help the trapped men,” said Padam Rawat, a relative. “He would send his wife and daughter money every month. It will take two days for his family to arrive.”
Rahul Tanti (26) from Silchar in Assam was working in the kitchen and fainted near the staircase when smoke engulfed the premises, said his cousin, Shibreem, adding, “If only someone had helped him…”
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“He came to Goa about five years ago and worked at many restaurants as a chef. He said cooking is all about giving and sharing. He has a wife and three children,” said Tanti.