In a hastily set up relief camp in Vatika village, barely 7 km from the inferno that is the Indian Oil Corporation depot in the Sitapura Industrial Estate, 50-odd families, all hailing from other states, have been adopted by the villagers there.

Other than food and water, which the district administration has supplied since Friday, the residents of Vatika have been taking care of those who fled their homes in a tearing hurry, leaving behind all their belongings, after the giant explosion rocked the area on Thursday evening.

Only a faint glow of the depot, as it burns to nothingness, is visible on the horizon, but to 23-year-old Manju Das from West Bengal the memory will take a while to fade. “I was on a bus over a flyover, traveling towards the industrial estate to meet my husband Ruchik, when the air tore up. The bus was lifted a few feet off the ground and fell back, but it did not overturn,” she remembers. Alone and tired, Manju only caught up with the rest of her family at Vatika Government School late on Thursday night after word spread that a temporary camp had been set up there.  

It was, however, the residents of Vatika who set up the camp just a few hours after the explosion. Giridharlal Meena, who runs a shop in Vatika says, “We all heard the explosion and minutes later, thousands of people were streaming into the village, away from the IOC depot.” After a quick discussion with the village panchayat, it was decided that the government school be opened immediately to accommodate survivors, he added.  

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