Eight sustain burns in fire

08/05/2020, S. PRASAD,CUDDALORE

Eight persons, including two employees of NLC India Ltd (NLCIL), were seriously injured when a fire broke out in a furnace of a boiler in one of the units of Thermal Power Station II in Neyveli on Thursday.

Engineers and contract workers were at the spot at the time of the accident and thick smoke billowed out of the unit.

Two employees — Sarbudin and Paavadai — and six contract workers — Ranjith Kumar, Manikandan, Balamurugan, Jaishankar, Anbalagan and Shanmugam — sustained burns. Two persons were in critical condition with 70% burns..

Power generation in three units of 210 MW unit each was stalled following the accident while all other units in the station and the other thermal power plants functioned as usual.

According to a senior official of NLCIL, “the accident occurred at around 5 p.m. in Unit VI. A loud explosion was heard on the furnace of the boiler located at a height of 82 metres.”

The temperature in the furnace on the top of the boiler was typically above 1,000 degrees Celsius when a fire broke out. Fire emanated from the boiler injuring the workers who were at the site.”

Preliminary investigations revealed that a fire broke out in the furnace. It could have been either due to an implosion or the structure could have been weak.