Fire at hydroelectric plant in Telangana, 9 trapped

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

Telangana, Aug 21, 2020:    Nine people are trapped inside a hydroelectric plant in Telangana after a fire broke out at one of the power houses inside the plant late last night.

 

Ten people have been rescued from the Srisailam hydroelectric plant, which is near Telangana’s border with Andhra Pradesh.

Nineteen people were on shift when the fire broke out at 10:30 PM. 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 got 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’s dam left bank is suspected to have led to the fire.

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.

According to initial reports, a short circuit at the underground hydroelectric power station situated at Srisailam’s dam left bank reportedly led to the fire.

A team of disaster response force, NDRF, is currently trying to evacuate those trapped inside. They are being assisted by firemen from Atmakur Fire Station from Kurnool district.

Energy minister Jagadish Reddy, minister Niranjan Reddy, CMD Prabhakar Rao, who reached the accident site at the night, are overseeing rescue efforts.

Such an accident has reportedly never taken place before. " Why it happened has to be investigated. How much damage has happened we will know only after the smoke goes away. Our priority right now is to rescue those trapped inside," Mr Rao said.