One of the two engineers who was critically injured in a fire accident that occurred at the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) power plant in Bengaluru’s Yelahanka, has succumbed to burn injuries. According to the police, the deceased has been identified as Balraj Murugan from General Electric. The deceased was admitted to the burns ward of the Victoria Hospital in the city and passed away on Monday night.
Yelahanka ACP Jayaram Gowda told TNM that this was the only casualty in the incident. 15 other staff working at the plant were injured including one other person, who was critically injured in the fire that occurred in the early hours of October 2. The fire occurred at around 3 am and those who were injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment.
After a preliminary investigation, KPCL had claimed that the incident took place due to a suspected oil leakage from a bearing and the flames came from a gas turbine chamber.
"Root cause is being analysed to find out the exact reason for the incident at the Combined Cycle Gas Power Plant at Yelahanka which is under construction and commissioning phase. The construction is being done by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)," the statement added.
Karnataka state fire and emergency services director, K Shiva Kumar, had earlier stated that the heat blast occurred in the KPCL's Combined Cycle Power Plant (370 MW) in Yelahanka while engineers were carrying out tests in a gas turbine chamber.
"The plant was supposed to commission its operations in December. All day, they had tested. When they were testing, variations in pressure were observed. The natural gas is supplied to this plant by GAIL India Limited. This incident occurred when KPCL engineers were conducting several checks to test the turbine," he had explained.