Telangana: Massive fire breaks out at power station, 9 feared trapped

Massive fire broke out at Left Bank Power station in Srisailam, Telangana, late last night. Ten people have been rescued of which six are under treatment at a hospital in Srisailam. Nine people are still feared trapped.

Srisailam: A massive fire broke out at an underground hydroelectric power station situated at Srisailam's Dam Left Bank canal in Telangana's Nagarkurnool district.

The fire was followed by an explosion and is said to have taken place late on Thursday. Initial reports suspect short circuit to be the cause of the fire.

Efforts are on to rescue nine persons trapped in the fire mishap at TS Genco's hydel power station. Of the 17 persons reported to be present at the spot, 10 escaped to safety through a tunnel. Those trapped include six TS Genco employees and three private company employees.

Firefighters were rushed to the spot and trying to rescue the trapped including a deputy engineer and assistant engineers. Officials said thick smoke is hampering rescue operations.

Telangana minister Jagadish Reddy and TS Genco CMD Prabhakar Rao arrived at the spot to oversee the rescue efforts. Reddy informed that the incident occurred in the first unit of the power station and four panels were damaged, adding that thick smoke didn't let the rescue personnel to enter the tunnel.

Rescue personnel are being brought in from the Singareni collieries to support the rescue operations.

Power generation operations at the power station have been suspended following the incident.

The Srisailam dam is located across the Krishna river which serves as the border between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.