SRISAILAM: All the nine persons trapped inside the Srisailam Left Bank underground hydel power generation unit, which was ravaged by massive fire late on Thursday night, have been confirmed dead by the authorities. The confirmation came after the chances of their survival was ruled out by the fire-fighting teams.

So far, three bodies have been extricated from the ill-fated power plant. Expressing shock over the fire disaster, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday ordered a detailed CID inquiry into the incident and appointed CID additional Director General Govind Singh as the investigating officer.

The deceased have been identified as Srinivas Goud, DE (Hyderabad), Venkat Rao, AE, (Palvoncha), AEs Mohan Kumar (Hyderabad), Ujma Fathima (Hyderabad) and Sundar (Suryapet), junior plant operators Rambabu (Khammam) and Kiran (Palvoncha), technician Mahesh Kumar and Amaran Batteries employee Vinesh Kumar of Hyderabad.

Massive rescue operations were carried out by members of the central industrial security force and special teams comprising fire-fighting personnel and others. The rescuers had to battle not only the fire but even thick smoke which was said to be hampered their efforts. A few of the CISF personnel were also stated to have experienced severe difficulty in breathing due to the asphyxiating nature of the smoke.

The fire broke out late on Thursday night inside the hydel power generation unit, which falls under the purview of Telangana state. What started as sparks from the panel board initially has quickly intensified into a major fire which subsequently engulfed the entire plant. Close to 30 employees were said to be on duty at the time of the mishap. While 15 of them had a providential escape, having slipped out of the power station through the emergency tunnel exit, six others were rescued by the teams that swung into action.

All the other nine persons have been confirmed dead as they remained trapped inside since last night. Heart-rending scenes were witnessed outside the power generation unit with families of the deceased crying inconsolably unable to reconcile to the loss of their dear ones. Telangana Energy Minister Jagadish Reddy, CMD of Transco and Genco Prabhakar Rao, MLA Guvvala Balaraju, Nagarkurnool district collector Sharman, Transco chief engineer Ramesh were among the key officials who have been supervising the rescue and relief measures.