Team News Riveting
Raipur, April 5
Transformer inventories of state-owned Chhattisgarh State Power Distribution Company (CSPDC) were reportedly gutted in a devastating fire that broke out in the Chhattisgarh capital on Friday afternoon.
Over 1500 transformer inventories were stored in the Raipur region inventory store located in the Gudhiyari sub-station of the company. Unconfirmed reports said that the number was between 1500 to 3000 while the loss could be pegged between Rs 100 to 150 core.
Neither the senior official of the energy department nor the CSPDC could be contacted for the version.
The employees spotted the blaze in the afternoon and within minutes, the fire took a devastating proportion. Call it a callous arrangement or serious negligence on the part of the power company, there was no fire fighting equipment in the depot despite hundreds of transformers packed with flammable oil were stocked.
Even it took about an hour for the fire tenders to reach the spot. By the time, the blaze spread like a wildfire. The explosion in the burning transformers sent a panic signal in the area, packed with dense population. The rescue teams removed cooking gas cylinders from the houses located nearby and evacuated people from the area.
The initial efforts to control the fire failed to yield the results. The fire tenders from the nearby industrial facilities were pressed into the service. By evening, the fire could be brought under control though it could not be extinguished.
Besides huge financial loss, the company is likely to face difficulty in the maintenance of supply during summer. A senior official said in case of transformer failure, which is feared during summer, the authorities will face problems in managing the affairs. The entire stock of transformers had been reduced to ashes.
The officials said spare transformers would be arranged from nearby centres.
