Fire breaks out at Cherlapally gas godown

Hyderabad: A major fire accident in the HPCL gas godown in Cherlapally on the city outskirts caused severe panic in the area. No causalities have been reported. The fire, which is said to have been triggered by the short-circuit at a nearby transformer late in the evening, spread to the LPG gas godown.

The police, fire brigade, GHMC and Revenue officials swung into action. Police closed all entry points and diverted the traffic about 3 km away from the place of incident. Six fire engines from the nearby fire stations were rushed to the spot.

Initially they struggled to reach the accident site as the cylinders’ blasts were heard for about a distance of more than a kilometre. Power in the nearby areas was disconnected to prevent spread of the fire. Panicked by the sounds of blasts, locals fled from the spot to safer places.

The police and revenue officials also asked people in the nearby houses to vacate and move to a safer place as a precautionary measure. Police also sent an SoS to the fire station near Shamshabad Airport to send two fire engines. All the workers in nearby godowns were also evacuated from the place. There is a railway track close to the plant.

Railway authorities were informed about fire and were asked to see that all train movement on that line were stopped. The fire officials said that the situation was brought under control around 11 pm. However, fire engines are continuing to douse the entire area with water and the operation will continue till past midnight, according fire officials. It is said that the godown has over 300 cylinders stocked there.

Though the actual loss is yet to be estimated, sources said the loss could be huge as the entire godown got gutted. The GHMC officials and medical help reached the spot. However, there were no causalities. Mayor Bonthu Ramamohan reviewed the situation.