Two more engineers, who were injured in the fire that broke out at the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) plant in Bengaluru's Yelahanka on October 2, succumbed to the injuries on Monday. Executive Engineer Krishna Bhat, 56, and Assistant Executive Engineer Manjappa, 58, died on Monday. This takes the total number of deaths related to the incident to three. They were among the 15 people who were injured in the fire that broke out at the plant in the early hours of October 2, The Hindu reported.
At least 15 of the staff working in the 370 MW Gas Power Plant were injured and rushed to the hospital on October 2. One engineer, identified by the police as Balraj Murugan, succumbed days after the fire broke out. He was critically injured in the incident.
During the preliminary investigation, the KPCL claimed that an oil leakage from a bearing is suspected to have caused the fire and that the flame came from the chamber, thus resulting in the incident.
"The root cause is being analysed to find out the exact reason for the incident. The Combined Cycle Gas Power Plant at Yelahanka is under construction and commissioning phase. The construction is being done by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL)," a statement by KPCL had said.
Karnataka state fire and emergency services director K Shiva Kumar had stated that a heat blast occurred in the KPCL's Combined Cycle Power Plant (370 MW) in Yelahanka while the engineers were carrying out the tests in a gas turbine chamber. The natural gas is supplied to this plant by GAIL India Limited.
"The plant was supposed to commission its operations in December. The engineers were testing the plant on the day of the incident. However, variations in pressure were observed when they were testing. The incident occurred when KPCL engineers were conducting several checks to test the turbine," Shiva Kumar had explained.