ONE SRI LANKAN STUDENT DIES AND TWO MORE CRITICALLY INJURED IN A FIRE AT A HOSTEL OF LULUMBA UNIVERSITY
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
November 25, 12.40 PM:An early morning fire at the student hostel in Moscow’s Patrice Lulumba Friendship University killed one Sri Lankan student and critically injured two others, reports from the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Moscow sai
Liyanage Olivia Iresha Perera was among scores of other Asian African students estimated to be more than thirty students who lost their lives in this tragic fire caused by an electrical leakage
Moscow’s Sri Lankan ambassador U.B. Wijekoon made arrangements with the university authorities to send the remains of the dead girl to her parents in Sri Lanka. He said the sad news had already been conveyed to her parents in Sri Lanka. Preliminary investigations showed that Iresha died of injuries caused when she jumped from a third floor window to escape the roaring flames of the fire that started in the second floor of the H block of the student hostel.
Two other Sri Lankan students, Kader Mohamed Aliyat Fathima and Mohamed Sideek Fathim Sihan , both females were also were critically injured when they jumped from the windows, but they were out of danger Sri Lankan Student Union official said.
A Sri Lankan student who lived in the 5th floor was saved by firefighters by using ladders sources said.
Ambassador U.B. Wijekoon said that he was woken by an embassy official Ratnayaka about 4 a.m. to inform about the fire. He requested Ratnayaka to immediately proceed to the hostel and later joined him.
Gayan Weerartne , the cultural Secretary of the Sri Lankan Student Union at the Patrice Lulumba University said the fire started in the second floor of the H block where fresh arrivals from Sri Lanka lived ,about 1.50 a.m. in the early hours of yesterday. He said the students in the ground floor had enough time to escape the fire.
