There was a major fire incident in the pantry car of the 12890 Yeshwantpur Tatanagar express in the night which gutted the coach. However, the prompt action of on board staff and other officials ensured that there were no injuries or casualties.
As per reports emerging, at around 1.25am, the pantry car staff pulled the emergency chain to stop the train at Gollaprolu station between Samalkot and Rajahmundry. On board TTE Mr Rajesh noticed the flames in the pantry car and along with the guard and assistant loco pilot attended to it with handheld fire extinguishers. When this was found to be unsuccessful, they ordered for the local fire tenders as well as the Accident Relief and Medical Vans to reach the spot.
Meanwhile the pantry car was isolated from adjacent coaches by 2am with the help of the guard and the station staff. This ensured that the fire did not spread to other coaches. The power in the overhead electric lines was also shut to enable relief work. The cause of the blaze has however not been ascertained as yet.
Other officials like the ADME Kakinada, ADRM, ACM, SrDEE, SrDME, SrDSO also reached the spot either by road or the train.
A special control room was setup in Rail Nilayam, Secunderabad to monitor the situation by the AGM and PCEE. The General Manager and Principal Chief Electrical Engineer of South Central Railways left by air to reach the spot.
As a consequence to this incident, many trains on the busy Vijayawada – Visakhapatnam section were detained at various stations and hence delayed.
Update: Train services were restored back to normal due to the quick action of the staff and have started working in both directions now.
Images: Indiarailinfo.com, Wikipedia, Twitter
