The Hindu : Front Page : Five bogies of train destroyed in fire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 21, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Five bogies of train destroyed in fire

Staff Reporter

Miraculous escape for passengers; delay in departure comes as a boon

REDUCED TO CINDERS: The interior of a coach of the Chennai-Hyderabad Express that caught fire on Sunday. - Photo: G. Krishnaswamy

HYDERABAD: Passengers of the Chennai-Hyderabad Express had a miraculous escape as five bogies of the train were completely destroyed in a fire, which broke out in one of the compartments minutes after the train left Secunderabad Railway Station on Sunday morning.

Luckily, there were no casualties as many of the passengers got down at Secunderabad itself following an official announcement that the train's departure for Hyderabad, 15 minutes away from Secunderabad, would be delayed by an hour. The derailment of a goods train at James Street in the early hours between the stations led to the delay.

Chain pulled

Fire reportedly broke out in S9 coach and spread to the adjoining S6, S7, S8 and S10 coaches. As the bogies went up in flames, the train came to a halt when an alert passenger in S10 coach pulled the chain and the 25-odd passengers in the coach jumped to safety. The other four compartments were empty, as all the passengers of the ill-fated coaches had already got down.

Meanwhile, railway personnel delinked the train from the burning coaches and prevented further damage. "Hearing a loud sound and seeing smoke emanating from S9 coach I pulled the chain and asked everyone to jump," a Chennai-based garment businessman, Ashok Jain, travelling in S10 coach said.

No access to tracks

Five fire tenders from Secunderabad, Panjagutta, Moula Ali and Musheerabad rushed to the spot and battled with the fire for three hours. "As there was no proper access to the tracks which were packed with houses on both sides, we broke open the iron fencing of a municipal playground at Adaiahnagar to reach them," District Fire Officer G. V. Narayana Rao said.

South Central Railway (SCR) General Manager D. N. Mathur said it was difficult to confirm whether it was a case of sabotage or an accident. He put the property loss at an estimated Rs.2.5 crores.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page