A major fire mishap took place inside the Srisailam hydel project after midnight hours. Nearly 30 staff of the operations and maintenance wing were working there at the time of the accident. About 21 employees came out through escape tunnels. The officials were making efforts to rescue the remaining nine persons trapped inside the project.
The hydel project is located on the Srisailam Left Bank. Thick smoke filled all the six units in the project. Sources said that the fire broke out in the fourth unit. With smoke filling the entire project inside, the officials and fire fighting personnel were facing problems to rescue the trapped persons inside.
The maintenance engineers heard loud sounds prior to the spread of smoke. Immediately, the employees were asked to vacate and escape to a safe place. The Divisional Engineer, junior assistant and others injured in the accident were shifted to the Eetelapenta Genco Hospital.
The fire tragedy came as yet another shock to the AP Government which was already burdened with a series of industrial mishaps ever since the Coronavirus epidemic outbreak. It all began with the LG Polymers fire tragedy in Visakhapatnam in which about 13 persons died after inhaling poisonous vapours. After this, several mishaps took place in pharma factories there and 10 persons died in a crane crash in the Shipyard. Later, another 10 patients died at a fire tragedy in Covid centre in Vijayawada city.
