A fire in five coal-laden wagons was brought under control at Bokaro Thermal railway station on Sunday morning after railway authorities halted the goods train and switched off the overhead electrical supply to prevent the incident from escalating.
The smoke and flames were noticed around 6am on platform number 1, when railway staff saw smoke emerging from five wagons. Flames were visible in one of them. The train had been loaded with coal at Kathara railway siding and was travelling towards the NTPC-linked Thermal Power Plant at Nabinagar in Bihar.
Station superintendent Shailesh Kumar said the rake was stopped immediately after the smoke was detected and that the DVC-CISF fire unit was alerted. CISF sub-inspector Rajiv Kumar and the firefighting team reached the station and began efforts to extinguish the flames.
The railway authorities also cut the overhead equipment, or OHE, power supply at the station as a precaution. The electrical isolation was intended to remove the immediate risk associated with firefighting operations near an electrified railway line and to allow the response team to work safely around the affected wagons.
The CISF team doused the flames before they spread to the remaining wagons. The intervention prevented a larger fire involving the rest of the rake, although the incident temporarily interrupted the movement of the coal train at the station.
Officials suspect that smouldering coal from a stockpile fire at Kathara Colliery may have been loaded into the rake inadvertently. According to the explanation reported by railway officials, the material could have intensified after coming into contact with air during transportation. This remains a preliminary assessment and has not been established as the confirmed cause.
A railway official said the exact cause of the fire and the extent of any damage were yet to be ascertained. Further assessment of the wagons and the coal consignment will determine the operational impact and the next steps in the incident review.
