India / 6 bodies recovered after fire at hydroelectric plant in Telangana

HYDERABAD: As many as six officials were found dead after a major fire broke out in the underground hydroelectric power station located in the Telangana side of the Srisailam dam over Krishna river in the Nagarkurnool district late on Thursday night. The fire started in the auxiliary voltage transformer of the fourth unit of the power station.

The Telangana govt has ordered a CID probe into the fire accident. CID Additional DGP Govind Singh will be the enquiry officer.

Officials identified one of the deceased as Sundar, who was TS Genco Assistant Engineer (AE). His body was found on the third floor of the hydel power plant, which has five floors.

The officials were yet to identify the remaining five bodies. A search is on for three others, who were trapped in the hydel plant after a fire broke out late last night.

According to preliminary reports, the cause of fire was due to a short-circuit. Rescue teams from Singareni Collieries Company Limited were pressed into service to rescue the employees.

The other trapped TS GENCO officials were identified as Deputy Engineer Srinivas and Assistant Engineers Venkat Rao, Fathima, Mohan and Sushma. The other two trapped persons are employees of Amar Raja batteries. 

Ten persons who escaped from the fire were rushed to the TS GENCO hospital for treatment.

A TS GENCO employee, who was at the hydroelectric power plant when the fire started said that, "it  seemed to have started in one of the panels, somewhere near the units 4, 5 and 6. At least ten people were working around that time. We immediately tried to control the fire using carbon dioxide fire extinguishing cylinders."

He further added that they tried to quell the flames for at least 20 minutes. "Thick smoke had engulfed the entire area. The visibility was so poor because of smoke that we could not see the person standing next to us. We had no idea as to what was happening and later a few of us somehow managed to escape. Only God knows how we managed to escape. I am still worried, some of my friends are still trapped there in fire."

As per preliminary reports, each turbine in the hydroelectric power station has the capacity to generate 150 MW power, but on Thursday there was a sudden spike in power generation, up to 180 MW, which resulted to a short circuit causing the fire. 

While the police, disaster management and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials, with the necessary safety gear and oxygen kits, are trying their best to rescue the persons trapped in the fire, the task is proving very tough due to thick smoke billowing at the accident site and the flames are still raring. 

Telangana power minister G Jagadish Reddy reached the spot soon after the accident and is at the site, monitoring the situation, along with various senior revenue and police officials of the district.