Fire engulfs coal handling plant of Chanda thermal power station

A massive fire engulfed the Coal Handling Plant (CHP) of Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS) late on Sunday night. Efforts by the maintenance team and the firefighting department of the plant kept the damage to minimum and brought the blaze under control within 45 minutes.

The fire had no impact on the power generation at the plant, said Pankaj Sapate, chief engineer at CSTPS.

CSTPS has a power generation capacity of 2,920 MW and caters to around 25% power need of the state. Employees working at CHP-D in the plant saw that the conveyor belt that carries to coal started burning at around 11pm and immediately alerted the firefighting department.

The fire team of the plant arrived at the spot and sprayed the water over the burning conveyor belt. The fire was so massive that it could be seen from several kilometers away. “Heavy wind blowing in the night further stoked the fire. When the maintenance crew saw that the fire could further spread along the belt, they cropped around 150m0long 104 AB section,” said Sapate.

He claimed that timely decision to cut down the belt saved further damage. The chopped burning section of belt was then doused within 45 minutes. The plant officials have estimated a primary damage of around Rs50 lakh.