The devastating fire Thursday morning on the Mumbai-Amritsar Frontier Mail may have been caused by a kerosene stove burst.

Member, Railway Safety Board, H C Gupta, said a preliminary examination of the burnt coaches has revealed pieces of a stove.

Thirty-eight people were killed when three coaches of the train caught fire near Ladhowal, 10 km from Ludhiana, at around 0600 IST.

Gupta told reporters that forensic experts examined the burnt coaches for two possibilities - electric short circuit and external reasons - and found pieces of a stove in S-4 coach, the worst affected of the three bogies.
 
Ruling out an electric short circuit, Gupta said all electrical devices on board the three coaches were found intact. "There is also no possibility of a sabotage," he added.

He said window bars near the burst stove were also damaged, possibly by the impact of the explosion. "May be somebody tried to make his early morning cup of tea," he told a questioner.

The train had stopped at Ludhiana at 0345 IST and no passenger had reported any electrical malfunctioning, Gupta said.