Nearly two weeks after the Kurangani forest fires that raged through the hills in Theni burning trekkers to death on March 11, the death toll has climbed to 19.
Sai Vasumathi, 26, succumbed to her injuries at Grace Kennet Hospital in the wee hours of Friday morning. She had suffered 56 percent burns.
On Thursday, Jayasree, 32, succumbed to her injuries at a private hospital in Coimbatore.
A statement from the private hospital read, “We undertook resuscitation efforts with intravenous fluids and wound care. She had full involvement of face, neck, both hands, chest, back, both thighs and right leg. She also had burn injury to the lungs due to inhalation of hot fumes.”
Jayasree had been on ventilator support from March 16, according to the hospital. However, she died at around 10 am on Thursday.
After battling for his life last week, Kannan, a native of Erode, succumbed to his burn injuries at the Government Hospital in Madurai. He had traveled with newly weds Divya and Vivek and another friend Thamilchelvan from Erode for the Kurangani trek. While Vivek and Thamilchelvan were killed on the spot on Sunday, Divya succumbed to her injuries in hospital. For all four, the Kurangini trip was their first trek.
Anu Vidhya, a 25-year-old trekker from Chennai, also passed away on Thursday after sustaining 80% burn injuries. An avid trekker, she was hoping to be the first vegan to scale Mount Everest.
According to the Forest Department, the 39 trekkers, who were trapped in the fire, came in two groups. While Tour De India Holidays led by Prabhu organised a trek for 12 people from Erode, the Chennai Trekkers Club (CTC) had 27 persons for the two-day trek at Kurangani forest.
All four organisers of the Chennai Trekking Club were killed in the fire.
The Theni police have arrested Prabhu, who organised the Erode trek as part of Tour De India Holidays, and booked him for causing death due to negligence and trespassing into a reserved area. The police is also on the lookout for for Peter Van Geit who founded the Chennai Trekking Club.