Dozens of families and their neighbours in Kerala have been plunged into grief with 24 non-resident Keralites dying in the apartment blaze in Kuwait that killed 49 workers, including 43 Indians.

Sabu Phillip, father of Steffin, an engineer who lost his life in the blaze, told reporters at his home in Pambady, Kottayam, that he was expecting his son to come home during a vacation in July.

“But I never expected him to come so early,” the distraught father said. The body is expected to be brought home in a day or two.

The father said Steffin was planning to get married and complete his under-construction house during the vacation. Phillip currently lives in a rented house.

An engineering graduate, Steffin had helped his younger brother Febin find a job in the same company a few months ago. But Febin stayed in another building.

Steffin was a keyboard player for the parish church and a social worker who touched many people’s lives when he was in Pambady.

Philip said that Febin would accompany the body of his brother. His youngest son Kevin is doing his doctorate in Israel.

The Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs (Norka), a department of the Kerala government, on Thursday confirmed that 24 expatriates from the state were among those who died in the blaze in Mangaf, Kuwait, on Wednesday.

Norka chief executive officer Ajith Kolasseri told reporters that efforts were being made to identify all the bodies, most of them badly charred.

Kolasseri said the post-mortem of all the identified bodies had been conducted. “The post-mortem has been completed on all the identified bodies. Those who have serious injuries have been shifted to the ICU. The others are in several other hospitals. Many have been discharged but we don’t know the numbers yet,” he said.

“Our priority now is to repatriate the identified bodies at the earliest. We expect the bodies to be brought tonight (Thursday).”

Six of the Malayali victims were from Pathanamthitta, which has a heavy concentration of NRIs based in the Gulf, the US and Europe.

Norka principal secretary K. Vasuki said plans were afoot to repatriate all the bodies together and the Union government had arranged for a special aircraft.

Kerala health minister Veena George, who visited the families of some of the victims in Pathanamthitta, said she would be heading to Kuwait on Thursday evening to coordinate the repatriation efforts and ensure the best medical care for the injured.

“Norka has launched a special facility to help with the repatriation of bodies and medical treatment of the injured,” she said.

The state government has announced ₹5 lakh for the kin of each of the dead and ₹1 lakh for each injured.

The chief minister’s office on Thursday said that Gulf-based Malayali entrepreneur M.A. Yusuff Ali would provide another ₹5 lakh to the kin of each of the dead while another businessman, Ravi Pillai, would contribute ₹2 lakh to each bereaved family.

The 43 Indians were among nearly 200 employees of a private company who were accommodated in the apartment. The fire erupted at 4am on Wednesday when everyone was asleep.

The minister of state for external affairs, Kirthivardhan Singh, has met the injured Indians and said a special aircraft would repatriate the bodies at the earliest.