In a freak mishap, nine persons were killed when fire erupted in the first unit of the Srisailam Left Bank hydel power plant at the remote Domalapenta village in Amrabad Mandal of Nagarkurnool past midnight on Friday, with the resultant fumes engulfing the entire underground power generation station in no time.
According to authorities of the Telangana State Power Generation Corporation (TSGenco), 17 people were engaged at the powerhouse when the fire accident took place.
However, eight of them managed to come out via three emergency exits in the plant. The trapped personnel, who were not carrying mobile phones (no network as it is an underground unit) could not be contacted by rescue personnel who managed to enter the premises about 10 hours after the fire broke out. A short-circuit is suspected to have caused the fire.
Six bodies have been recovered so far. The rest were trapped in a thick blanket of smoke that had engulfed the hydro-electric power plant, hampering rescue efforts that could begin only past noon on Friday.
Rescue personnel earlier said that they could not enter the premises even through the emergency exits because of the smoke.
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao monitored the rescue work through his cabinet colleague and TS Genco authorities.