Massive fire breaks out on 3 coaches of Falaknuma Express; no casualties reported

A massive fire broke out on three bogies of Falaknuma Express between Bommaipally and Pagidipally, following which it was stopped. Videos of the incident have surfaced and is going viral on social media platforms. 

According to a report by ANI, all passengers deboarded the train and no injuries were reported.

Reportedly, the incident took place near the Pagidipalli railway station around 11:30 am on Friday morning. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.

As per railway officials, the three coaches, S4, S5, and S6, caught fire and all passengers were made to deboard the train immediately. They said alternate arrangements were being made.

Chief Public Relations Officer of the Railways said, “Cancellation of trains and alternate routes will be figured once the fire is extinguished. We will inform later”, according to an India Today report.

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The incident comes just days after a triple crash in the Balasore district of Odisha killed at least over 290 people and injured more than 1,000. It was India's worst rail crash in two decades.

The crash involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express and Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express, which were carrying around 2,500 passengers, and a goods train.

The Commissioner of Railway Safety’s (CRS’s) investigation into the Balasore train accident in Odisha has found that wrong labelling of wires inside the level-crossing location box, that remained undetected for years, led to a mix-up during maintenance work, which eventually led to the Coromandel Express crashing into two other trains.

The report pointed out lapses at multiple levels, as per a report in The Indian Express. Apart from the signalling department, the station master, part of the operations department, has also been named in the report for failing to detect ‘abnormal behaviour’ of the signalling control system.

(With inputs from Apoorva Jayachandran)

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