A major fire broke out in the under-ground tunnel of Uri II Power Project in Baramulla district of North Kashmir on Thursday leaving electrical merchandize worth crores dented although no casualty was reported, fire service officials said.
Around 14 fire tenders and at least 90 fire fighters were pressed into service to douse the flames.
“We got a call around 4:15 in the morning regarding fire in a transformer following which fire tenders were rushed to the spot. As the flames spread in the 800 meter long tunnel, the fire was upgraded to the level of medium fire. Around 14 fire tenders are working to douse the flames,” Joint Director Fire and Emergency Services RK Hawk who was on the spot to supervise the effort said.
He added smoke emanating from the tunnel hampered their efforts to curb the fire.
Director General Fire Services, Ghulam Ahmed Bhat said: “The blaze took place inside the tunnel of the power project, where movement of equipment and scarcity of water is hampering our efforts.”
He said that fire fighting operation was started only after them fire-fighters obtained oxygen cylinders and masks. He added that fire-service men had to fetch water from Salamabad as there was no water available near the spot of incident.
Official sources said that fire probably caused due to short circuit broke out in one of the under-ground tunnel at 4 in the morning. They said that all the employees and workers present there were rescued, however, property was damaged as at initial stage it was extremely difficult to put out fire in the tunnel.
Deputy Commissioner Baramulla Farooq Ahmed Lone said that no one was hurt in the fire. He said that fire tenders arrived from Baramulla and they put out it after hours of struggle. One of the officials of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) said that all the people were evacuated from the spot of incident with the assistance of police and Army. He said that situation is under control and it will be premature to say how much damage the fire has caused. He however added that cables, transformers and other appliances lying in the underground tunnel have suffered damages.
Reports said that all the police, district and army officials rushed to spot to assess the situation.
General Officer Commanding Lieutenant General Subrata Saha monitored the fire fighting operation. Joint Director Fire Services
Hawk and Assistant Director Fire Services Jamsheed Iqbal who led the fire fighting operation said that the fire had completely engulfed the 800 meters long under –tunnel. “We started operation only after procuring oxygen cylinders and masks,” they said.
DIG Baramulla Ghulam Hasan Bhat said that police rescued all the workers and evacuated them to safer places.
A police official said that that they are investigating the matter and trying to ascertain what caused the fire. He however said that the the apparent cause of the fire is probably the malfunctioning of a transformer.
The 240MW Uri-II hydroelectric plant is the second run-of-the-river power project on the Jhelum River in the Uri area of Baramullah District. National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) is developing the project downstream of the existing 480MW Uri-I power plant which was commissioned in 1997.
The power plant consists of four 60MW generating units. Three of the four units were commissioned by the end of 2013 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the fourth unit in July 4, 2014.
