Nineteen people were on shift at the time of fire incident…
A fire broke out inside a hydroelectric plant in Telangana under tunnel power house late last night, nine people are trapped.The fire started around 10.30 PM at unit one of the under tunnel power house of the Srisailam hydroelectric plant, which is near Telangana’s border with Andhra Pradesh. Nineteen people were on shift at the time of fire incident. While 10 people managed to escape, nine others, including a division engineer, four assistant engineers, two junior plant attendants and two others from Amara Raja Batteries were trapped inside.
“As soon as the fire started, they tried to trip the units but that couldn’t happen. So we isolated the 400 KV input and all units were tripped,” Telangana Transco CMD D. Prabhakar Rao said. According to initial reports, a short circuit at the underground hydroelectric power station situated at Srisailam dam’s left bank is suspected to have led to the fire.
According to officials, the project unit operates at multiple levels. Those in the control room are said to have managed to come out. Others at lower levels couldn’t come out because of the smoke. The current being switched off also hampered rescue and escape efforts.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is currently trying to evacuate those trapped inside.Firemen assist them. Teams from Singareni with experience in handling underground units are also present at the accident site.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy postpone his visit to Srisailam project site where he was supposed to conduct Jala Harathi (puja). Meanwhile, Telangana chief minister KCR Rao’s office said that he is continuously monitoring the operations at the accident site.