HYDERABAD: Hundreds of passengers of the Howrah-Hyderabad Falaknuma Superfast Express had a miraculous escape after fire broke out in one of the reserved compartments, that spread to the adjoining bogies in the Bommaipalli-Pagidipalli section, near the Bibinagar railway station, about 50 km from here on Friday.
The fire completely gutted five sleeper coaches, including S4, S5 and S6. The train was running about two-and-a-half hours late.
The fire was noticed at about 11 am and some passengers quickly pulled the alarm chain to stop the train. Sources said this was one of the factors that saved passengers because almost all of them were awake and were readying to detrain at Secunderabad.
While passengers jumped out as soon as the train came to a halt, many of them left their luggage behind, some containing valuables and other containing certificates. The mishap comes a couple after the mishap at Bahanaga Bazaar station in Odisha that claimed 288 lives.
Passengers in the train alerted fire, police and also railway helpline 139, following which multiple teams, comprising Rachakonda police, Bhongir district administration, district disaster response force, railway police and RPF personnel, rushed to the spot and launched rescue operations.
After the operation was complete, DGP Anjani Kumar said in a tweet, "All passengers are safely evacuated and shifted in buses after a fire broke out in the Falaknuma Express near Bhongir rural PS limits. Police, Fire Dept, and Railways are working in coordination. So far, no fatalities have been reported (sic).”
DCP Bhongir M. Rajesh Chandra told Deccan Chronicle that the fire was controlled in three hours. Meanwhile, a Clues team and experts from TS FSL also visited the site. After inspection, they have started examining the coaches, which have since been diverted to Bibinagar railway station.
According to fire department officials, they received an SOS at 11:17 am and a fire tender from Bhongir was the first at the spot. After assessing the intensity of the fire, tenders from Aleru, Yadagirigutta, Cherlapally, Ramannapet, Choutuppal were also pressed into service.
“Initially, the 11 unaffected compartments were detached as a precautionary measure. Firefighting began after overhead power was disconnected in 30 minutes. Approximately, 54,000 litres of water was used to extinguish the fire,” officials said.
On a complaint from the station manager of Nalgonda, SI K. Salakamma of GRP Nalgonda registered a fire accident case and started investigation. Railway officials have also launched a parallel probe.
