Lucknow: They had left home carrying ambition — promises of careers, stability and dignity. They returned wrapped in white.The fire at an animation and gaming training centre in Aliganj that killed 15 young people has left families across four states staring at futures that ended before they began. The victims, aged between 18 and 30, were trainees and young professionals — many at the threshold of new lives, barely stepping into what they had long imagined.Of the 15 victims, 11 were from Uttar Pradesh, two from West Bengal, and one each from Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. Tragedy travelled across geography, binding distant homes in a single grief. Among UP natives, seven were from Lucknow, two from Kanpur, and one each from Sitapur and Barabanki.At KGMU’s trauma centre, the air was heavy with disbelief. Families waited for bodies they could not yet accept as their own. Some clung to hope until the last moment. Others broke down the instant hope dissolved.“It was just a five-second call… ‘Papa, Papa, please save me’…” said Narendra Kunwar, his voice collapsing under the weight of memory. “And then the line went dead.”His son, 23-year-old Bhavishya, had only just begun. A private Hindi teacher in Sonepat, Haryana, Kunwar had celebrated days earlier when his son secured a job as an animator with a monthly salary of ₹25,000. Sweets were distributed in the village. A future had taken shape.“Today… instead of bringing him home with pride, I am taking back his shroud,” he said, struggling to stand.Not far away sat Jayant Chakraborty, a Coal India officer from MP’s Anuppur, trying to come to terms with a loss he first encountered on a television screen. “I saw my son’s death on TV… I still can’t believe it,” he said.His son, 26-year-old Jainil, had spent years chasing a dream in animation—studying in Pune, working tirelessly, beginning his career in 2024. “We thought he was building a future,” his father said after a pause. “We didn’t know we were sending him to his end.”The Samanta family from Kolkata is learning what it means to remember a last conversation too late.Thirty-year-old Anamika Samanta had spoken to her mother that morning, as she did every day. “We spoke… like always,” said her mother, Sulekha, her words breaking mid-sentence. “I never thought that was goodbye.” Anamika had just engaged a couple of days ago to a colleague Nilesh, who also died in the fire.The family travelled overnight to Lucknow, carrying hope with them. At the hospital, identification came with an unbearable detail. “Only her face was intact… that’s how we knew it was her,” a relative said quietly.Grief did not come alone. It arrived doubled for the Bera family. Soumalya Bera, 24, Anamika’s cousin, also died in the same blaze. His father, Tapan Bera, sat in stunned silence. “I never imagined I would see my son like this… wrapped in a shroud before me,” he said.Outside the mortuary, the stories began to merge—fragments of last calls, voices choked with smoke, phones going silent mid-plea. Each account different, yet painfully the same.BOXSmoke, not flames killed most victimsLucknow: Meanwhile, the postmortem report of 15 victims in Aliganj fire reveals that toxic smoke, and not flames, may have actually killed most of them.According to doctors involved in the postmortem examinations, evidence of smoke inhalation was found in the majority of the victims, and most succumbed to asphyxia before the fire could physically engulf them.Significantly, they also noted that most of the victims sustained only 10-15% burns, indicating that burns were not the primary cause of death.Medical experts said the victims likely lost consciousness after inhaling smoke and poisonous gases generated during the blaze, leaving them unable to escape.The findings point towards smoke inhalation and oxygen deprivation as the fatal factors.Police officers explained that in enclosed-space fires, toxic smoke often claims lives within minutes, long before flames reach those trapped inside.The postmortem findings paint a chilling picture of the victims’ final moments. As smoke spread through the premises, visibility would have dropped drastically while toxic gases accumulated rapidly, creating deadly conditions. Many of those inside may have been disoriented or rendered unconscious before they could find a safe exit.The tragedy claimed the lives of Anuchha Rai (24), Anamika Samanta (30), Saumalya Bera (24), Saiyam Vij (28), Suraj Singh (27), Sagar Pant (28), Sukhmani Singh (24), Jyoti (26), Mohammad Ammar (24), Nilesh Kumar (27), Jaineel Chakraborty (26), Abdul Rehman (22), Aditya Srivastava (24), Shahzan Siddiqui (18), and Bhavishya (23).
