20130413 India Sleeper coach gutted, 2 others damaged in fire at rail yard
India Apr 13 2013 “Automobile & Railway”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Sleeper coach gutted, 2 others damaged in fire at rail yard
Updated: 2013-04-14-05:09
CHENNAI: A sleeper coach was gutted and two other coaches damaged in a fire at Basin Bridge train care centre on Saturday. Nobody was injured. The coaches belonged to the Chennai-Chhapra Express train that was being washed at a pit line around 9am.
Workers used water jets meant for washing coaches to put out the fire and prevented it from spreading to other coaches of the train and to other trains parked nearby. Fire and rescue services personnel and ambulances reached the spot soon. By then, a sleeper coach was completely destroyed.
A senior railway official said, “The cause is not known. We have ordered a probe. The damaged coaches will be replaced and the train will leave Chennai Central for Chhapra as scheduled on Sunday.”
Sources said that the fire began at a mobile phone charging port of the coach and spread quickly. The coaches are powered for checking at pit lines. The affected coaches — two sleeper coaches and an AC coach — were detached from the train and moved to a corner of the yard for inspection.
According to sources, safety is lax at the yard as trains are moved in and out of pit lines without much supervision. The Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Express was brought in on a pit line around 11.30am even as a few components of the gutted sleeper coach were still smouldering and smoke was billowing from them.
Neither the workers who were attending to the Chhapra Express nor the loco pilot who was driving the diesel shunting locomotive of the train bother much about the thick smoke billowing from debris lying almost under the wheels of the train as it rolled into the pit line.
“The yard does not have an efficient fire fighting mechanism or ambulance to take injured workers to hospitals. Electrical connections and equipment are handled callously for want of spares,” said a worker at the train care centre.
Though employees protested a year ago and have been making complaints about inadequate facilities, the railways has done very little to improve the conditions at the largest yard of the zone. Pit lines remain dirty with garbage, including easily inflammable paper waste and plastic waste, swept out from trains lying on either side.
Every day, more than 100 trains are rolled in for maintenance at the yard that has more than 35 lines.
Websouce:The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Sleeper-coach-gutted-2-others-damaged-in-fire-at-rail-yard/articleshow/19536019.cms
Date:2013-04-14
Country:India