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Narrow escape for passengers, cause of fire unclear in Falaknuma Express
7 bogies of the Falaknuma Express caught fire near Bhongir town in Telangana.
Hyderabad Passengers on board the Falaknuma Express, from Howrah to Secunderabad, had a narrow escape on Friday afternoon when seven bogies of the train caught fire near Bhongir town in Telangana’s Yadadri-Bhongir district, South Central Railway (SC Railway) officials said.
The reason for the fire was yet to be ascertained, they added.
According to the chief public relations officer of SC Railways, Ch Rakesh, the fire broke out in three reserved bogies – S4, S5 and S6 of the Falaknuma Express (Train No. 12703), and spread to several other bogies while the train was moving between between Bommaipally and Pagidipally at around 11.30am.
The train left Howrah 7.15 am on Thursday, and was due to reach Secunderabad at 9.15 am on Friday. The incident occurred just 35kilometres from its final destination.
“Some of the passengers alerted the ticket-checking staff, who immediately pulled the chain to alert the pilot. As the train stopped, all the passengers deboarded the train. There were no casualties,” Rakesh said.
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He said while three bogies, S4, S5, S6, were completely gutted, some adjacent bogies were partially damaged. The affected bogies were immediately de-linked to prevent the fire from spreading.
Telangana’s director general of police (DGP) Anjani Kumar said all the passengers were safely evacuated and shifted to buses to be taken to their destinations.
Eight fire tenders from Yadadri Bhongir district and Hyderabad were rushed to the spot. Along with fire personnel, teams from the Rachakonda Police, Railway Protection Force, Railway police and Yadadri Disaster Response Force also joined the rescue operation, the DGP added.
While SC Railway authorities said five bogies were damaged, the police department said, of the 18 coaches, seven bogies caught fire, and the remaining 11 were detached.
SC Railway general manager Arun Kumar Jain, who rushed to the accident spot, told reporters that an inquiry by the rail safety department was ordered into the cause of the fire. “So far, the cause of the fire has not been ascertained. We are examining whether there is any damage to the track and now focussing on restoring the track for restoring normal operations,” an SC Railway spokesperson said.
News agency PTI quoted a passenger as saying that “luggage of several passengers was gutted as they did not have enough time to collect them...”
Another passenger said, “along with her luggage, her educational certificates were also lost in the fire”, according to the agency.
The incident took place a month after a triple train collision in Odisha’s Balasore district claimed the lives of 293 people, in what was the deadliest Railways tragedy in three decades.
The SC Railway set up a help desk at the Secunderabad railway station -- phones numbers 27786140, 22786170 and 27801111 -- to assist passengers. “Most of the passengers lost their luggage and valuables in the fire mishap,” a police officer in Bhongir said.
The Yadadri-Bhongir collector, Pamela Satpathi, who also went to accident spot, made food and drinking water arrangements for passengers at a nearby residential school, and later shifted them to Hyderabad in 12 buses.
The SC Railway announced the cancellation of two trains – the Secunderabad-Repalle and the Secunderabad-Manmad express – the partial cancellation of two other trains – the Thiruvananthapuram-Secunderabad and the Repalle-Secunderabad express – and diverted four other trains.
