Narrow escape for railway officials as fire breaks out in Agra train control dept

PTI, Aug 1, 2024, 12:12 PM IST

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A massive fire broke out in the train control department of the Agra Rail Division early Thursday, railway officials said. There was no loss of life in the incident and no train service was affected, they said.

Railway sources said that about 50 officials, including controllers, were working at the time of the incident and had a narrow escape. “A fire was reported in the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) server room in the control office at around 2:30 am. It was doused by 4 am with the help of fire extinguishers and fire brigade,” Agra Railway Division, PRO, Prashasti Srivastava told PTI.

She added, “All railway officials were safely evacuated without any loss of life or injury. There are two gates to exit the control office that were used for evacuation. No train services were affected.” According to Srivastava, the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained and an inquiry committee has been formed under the Divisional Safety Officer. A railway official from the division told PTI, “The fire started from the battery room, possibly due to the bursting of a faulty battery and soon engulfed the whole ground floor of the building.”

“Three fire brigade vehicles were put into service for more than an hour to douse it,” he said. Railway officials also say that an unauthorisedly-built gate on the other side of the ground floor offered an escape for several controllers. Officials stuck on the ground floor ran out from the unauthorisedly-built gate to save their lives. One of the controllers fell unconscious due to smoke, an official, who was an eyewitness to the incident, said.