Itanagar, Feb. 11: Little Takam stood on the burning deck till the end, helping others escape, before being engulfed in the raging inferno.

As the fire spread at the Holy Angel private hostel for students of Don Bosco School in the remote township of Palin in Arunachal Pradesh last night, the Class V student did not panic.

“Instead, he began rousing others who were fast asleep and had no idea that a fire had broken out in their hostel,” Lokam Tassar, the Congress MLA from Koloriang in Kurung Kumey district said over phone, just after returning from a visit.

But the “braveheart” himself had no time to escape.

Takam was among 10 students who were killed while three others are still missing in the fire which started around 9pm. By that time, like the residents of the small township, all the 62 boarders had gone to sleep.

Tassar, who admitted to have been very disturbed by the heart-breaking sights at the gutted hostel, said he spoke to many of the boarders who managed to escape and “all of them told me about the courage of Takam”.

The dead students were among the youngest in the hostel, ranging from KG to Classes I and II.

The hostel was, in fact, just a large dormitory with the only door close to the kitchen.

“The fire started in the kitchen and hence, the only exit was blocked. The students who died had no chance of escaping,” he added.

Most of the students escaped through the windows and by breaking open the weaker portions of the bamboo walls.

Six-year-old Nakum Jumsi was among the lucky ones who was rescued by people residing near the hostel.

With telltale burn injuries on her body, Nakum writhed in bed.

Her mother, B. Jumsi, recalled those tense moments when she heard about the incident. “I woke up at 10.30pm last night when my husband came running with the shocking news of the fire. Both of us rushed to the hostel, which is about 5km from our home”, she said.

“With a prayer on our lips for the safety of our child, we reached the spot to find a completely gutted house. But we heaved a sigh of relief when the partially injured girl was rescued by some residents,” her father, Buiri, said at the chamber of Heema Clinic in Itanagar. Both rushed to Itanagar — about 250km away — with their child in a hired car and admitted her to the private nursing home where the child is now recuperating from the burns.

Fr Sony PJ, vice principal of Don Bosco College, Itanagar, and member of the society and managing committee of Holy Angel Don Bosco School, described the incident as a “very sad story and a moving incident”.

“We can only pray for these kids now,” he said.