Burnt to ashes: Fire engulfs train wagons

HYDERABAD:

A raging fire gutted two train wagons and damaged two more coaches parked at Hyderabad Railway Station on Friday.

While the cause of the fire has yet to be established, officials believe that drug addicts living in the spare wagons may have sparked the blaze.

According to station master Islamuddin Shaikh, the fire broke out in one of the wagons and then engulfed three others attached to it. He said that the seats and wires inside the burnt carriages were reduced to ashes and estimated the loss to be in millions of rupees.

Shaikh said that a team from the head office will conduct an inquiry into the incident and provide the exact cost of the damage. "We had already detached the batteries, so there is no reason to believe that there was a short-circuit," he said. "The drug addicts usually light fires inside the carriages in winter to keep themselves warm, which is why we suspect that to be the cause." It took firemen, assisted by the residents of the nearby areas, nearly two hours to douse the fire. However, the incident did not interrupt train traffic at the station.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 1^st, 2014.