A fire broke out at a power sub-station at Narkatpally in Telangana’s Nalgonda district after it was struck by lightning on Wednesday evening.
The station is located along the Hyderabad-Vijayawada Highway and a team of firefighters was roped in bring the flames under to control.
According to the district fire officials, the incident took place around 5.10 pm on Wednesday. The fire department was informed of the incident via the emergency helpline (101) by the electricity department staff on duty at the station.
A fire accident occurred in Narkatpally sub station which is beside Hyd-Vijayawada High way. Fire fighting teams were roped in.More details are awaited.@dhanyarajendran @thenewsminute pic.twitter.com/6XAQVDvGLF
— CharanTeja (@CharanT16) May 27, 2020
Speaking to TNM, Nalgonda Station Fire Officer Shyam Sundar Reddy said, "Around 5.10 pm we were alerted and our team, with a fire containment tanker, left for the spot. We reached by 5.40 pm and managed to control and put out the fire in about 20 minutes.”
"According to eye-witnesses, the area saw five to six thunderbolts, one out of which fell on the 33KV section of sub-station, resulting in the blast of a Current Transformer (CT). That is what caused the fire. The machinery, wires and other material have been damaged in the fire,” he added.
The officials said the damage, which could have been worse, was prevented as the fire fighting teams neutralised the fire before it could spread to other lines located at a close range. Officials have also stated that there were no casualties or injuries reported in the incident.
District Superintendent of Police, fire officers, and electricity officials visited the scene and supervised the fire fighting operations. An official said that a test run of power supply was done on certain channels to check whether they have been damaged. He said the overall damage could be concluded following a thorough ascertainment of the scene.
District Assistant Fire Officer (DAFO) Shanmuka Rao told TNM that the electricity officials are assessing that there could be primary damage of Rs 10 lakhs. However, that may vary from the final assessment of the scene.
Rao said, "The thunderbolt seems to be the reason for the accident. The teams have neutralized and controlled the fire in a very short time. As of now, no casualties or human loss has been reported."
"The situation is under control now," he added.
According to officials, the sub-station at Narkatpally has three sections — 220KV, 133KV and 33KV — and the incident took place in the 33KV section. The power supply on the Narkatpally and Ramannapeta line was disrupted due to the incident. According to officials, services will be resumed after a day of repair work.