'Came to US with dreams': Friends of Preet Harsoda seek help for treatment, 30 Indian students affected in FSU fire

Florida State University is still reeling from the devastating fire that burned an apartment building at The Social Seminole on Ocala Road on November 19. Many students of the university live in the apartment and they were caught running for their lives when the fire broke out. The Indian Student's Association of Tallahassee claimed that as many as 30 Indian students were severely affected in the fire, including two with serious burn injuries.

Several fundraisers have been initiated and FSU professors have also come forward to help the foreign students who lost everything in the fire.

One of the severely injured students has been identified as 27-year-old Preet Harsoda, who recently came to Florida from India. "Preet suffered life-threatening burns over approximately 65–70% of his body. He was initially taken to Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and then urgently airlifted to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL, where he is currently in the intensive care unit," Preet's friend Ilesh Patel wrote for a fundraiser.




"Preet came to the US with dreams of building a better future through education. Overnight, his life has been turned upside down," he wrote adding that doctors had to make multiple incisions in Preet's skin to allow blood circulation and that he would need many surgeries, skin grafts and long-term medical care.

'They lost everything'

“They came here with a couple of suitcases and had began building their lives here, both socially and academically,” Biological Science Professor Beth Stroupe who started another fundraiser, said. “They had the clothes on their back when they were evacuated from their apartment.”

“Being brand new to the country and then losing everything, and so everyone’s heart really went out to them,” Professor Scott Stagg said.

“I could feel the fire like chasing after me. I was running and I could feel it on my back. That heat, that burning sensation. I could feel it. I actually thought that I was on fire,” one student said while escaping the fire.