Naomi Cappelli, 21, was one of the young women from Tasmania who survived the fire on the Howrah-Dehradun train in eastern India.

She told The Age she and her three childhood friends had no time to think or help one another because "it was a question of seconds, of seconds before you were dead".

Ms Cappelli said she was on holiday in India with her friends, Sophie Moore, Bronwyn Smithies and Kate Scanlan — all 21 — when the fire broke out about 2.30am, local time.

They were all asleep in the same carriage as it passed through a remote region of the state of Jharkand.

Ms Scanlan, a physiotherapy student at Melbourne University who grew up at Forth, was killed in the fire.

"I woke up suddenly with the fire right by my bed," she said.

"It was huge and the carriage was full of smoke. It was dark. I couldn't see anything. I just sprinted to the end of the carriage to get out, there was screaming and people trying to get out, but the door was locked."

She found refuge from the smoke in a toilet before her friend Ms Moore eventually managed to open the door of the carriage, allowing everyone to rush out into the air.

"At that stage I didn't know what had happened to Bronwyn or Kate," she said.

"It's still so hazy. We've all different versions of what happened. It happened so fast. I just jumped off."

Ms Cappelli said she realised train doors were locked to prevent people jumping off, but the fact that the windows would not open, even in the toilet, meant the carriage was a "death trap".

"There was nothing, no fire extinguishers, no sprinklers, nothing," she said. "There was no way to get out."

Later today, the three survivors will be reunited.

Ms Scanlan's death has shaken the three women.

Their families have always been very close and they grew up together, attending Forth Primary School, Devonport High School and Don College together.

At Dhanbad Hospital, Bronwyn Smithies said she had been "trapped" and, like Cappelli, had sought refuge in a toilet as the only place she could breathe.

The Age