Page 91 - Disaster Accident
Crew of 13 Indians rescued from burning ship in UAE
Thirteen Indians onboard a burning cargo ship were rescued Wednesday by a team of quick-acting firefighters at Khalid Port in Sharjah. The vessel was loaded with 6,000 gallons of diesel, 120 exported vehicles and 300 vehicle tyres - all of which were gutted in the massive blaze. No casualties have been reported as the firefighters reached the site immediately and evacuated the crew members in time, Col Sami Al Naqbi, director-general of Sharjah Civil Defence was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Times. The civil defence received information about a fire breaking out in a cargo at Sharjah Creek at 6.44 am. The team reached the location within five minutes, shifted the crew to safety and contained the raging blaze in an hour, the officer said. The rescued crew was given first aid and food. The site has been handed over to the forensic expert of Sharjah Police to probe the reason behind the fire. It was the third fire accident at the same site. Most fires have been caused due to the crew ..
Fani: Rlys to resume normal services from Puri by May 12, restore station in 3 months
In an effort to resume connectivity with Odisha's Puri in the aftermath of the devastation wreaked by cyclone Fani, the Railways Wednesday said it will start normal services from the tourist town by May 12 but the complete restoration of the severely damaged railway station can take up to three months. Extremely severe cyclonic storm 'Fani' made landfall in the coastal town on May 3, unleashing copious rain and windstorm with speeds of up to 175 kmph, and left behind a trail of destruction in 18 districts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. The Railways had cancelled 595 trains since the cyclone hit the state on May 3 and has so far managed to restore 141 of them, including 34 trains originating from Bhubaneshwar. "Today (Wednesday) we have restored three pairs of express trains from Puri and we will gradually increase the number. This decision has been taken by factoring in the repair work of the over-head wires, poles and the signalling system that needs to be done. By May 12, we will ...
Central govt team to soon visit Odisha to assess damage due to cyclone Fani
A team from the central government will soon visit Odisha to assess the damage caused by cyclone Fani. Reviewing the relief measures in Odisha, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha Wednesday asked concerned officials of the state and the Centre to focus on implementation of the priority plans prepared for restoration of power and telecommunications in Puri and Bhubaneswar and monitor the progress on a day-to-day basis. "On the request of Odisha, he further directed that a central team may visit Odisha soon to assess the extent of damage caused by cyclone Fani," a statement issued by the Home Ministry said. The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), under the cabinet secretary, reviewed the rescue and relief measures in cyclone Fani affected areas of Odisha with the senior officials of the state government and central agencies concerned. The Odisha government informed that situation in 8 out of total 9 affected districts has improved and power and telecom services are gradually picking up
Massive fire destroy wheat crops in several acres of land in Samba
A massive fire completely destroyed standing and cut-out wheat crop spread over 100 acres of farm land in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district on Wednesday. The fire started due to electric short circuit in a power supply line over the farm land in Samba, officials said. Within minutes, the fire spread over 2 to 3 kilometres of area and engulfed the vast chunks of land as local people and fire tenders rushed to douse it, they said, adding the efforts to control the fire are still on. The people, however, alleged that there were just two fire tenders with the authorities and even they were late in reaching the spot. They said they have demanded the government to call army fire tenders to extinguish the fire. The people claimed that crops in over 100 acres of land have destroyed, leaving over 20 farmers in extreme distress.
Cyclone Fani: Power situation improves in 9 of 10 districts in Odisha
Power situation in eight of the nine cyclone-hit districts of Odisha has improved but the functioning of a few ATMs still remained affected due to non-availability of telecom services, the Union Home Ministry said Wednesday. The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha, again reviewed the rescue and relief measures in Fani-hit areas with senior officials of the Odisha government and central ministries and agencies. The state government informed the Centre that situation in eight out of nine districts has improved and power and telecom services are gradually picking up in the worst-affected areas of Puri and Bhubaneswar, a home ministry statement said. While banking services resumed in Puri, non-availability of electricity supply and telecom connectivity hampered the functioning of a few ATMs, it said. Nearly 3,500 gang men are engaged in restoring power transmission lines, sub-stations etc. and more workers would reach Odisha from West Bengal .
Indian technician crushed to death at Kuwait airport
An Indian aviation technician working with Kuwait Airways died after he was run over by an empty Boeing 777 aircraft while it was being towed away at the company's base airport.
4 feet hole appears on NH 8 flyover in Gurugram
In the latest evidence of road deterioration of highways, a large four feet hole was spotted on Wednesday on the Hero Honda Chowk flyover on the Delhi-Jaipur stretch of the National Highway 8 which poses a big risk to the lives of commuters.
IAF aircraft overshoots runway at Mumbai, flights affected
An AN-32 transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) overshot the main runway of the Mumbai airport late Tuesday night, affecting flight operations. The main runway was closed for around 17 hours after the 11.39 pm incident, affecting dozens of flights and was handed back for operations at 4.50 pm Wednesday, sources said. The aircraft was taking off for the Yelhanka Air Force base near Bengaluru when the incident took place. Efforts to move the aircraft began after daybreak. The incident forced airport officials to switch flight operations to the lesser-capacity secondary runway. As the main runway normally handles most flights, a large part of the operations was affected, with dozens of flights delayed, the sources said. A Defence spokesperson said the aircraft abandoned take off in view of a technical issue and overshot the runway. "The aircraft and crew are safe. A recovery team arrived in Mumbai Wednesday and the plane was cleared from the runway," he added. The .
Alert train driver saves elephant on track
A train driver applied emergency brakes to save an elephant crossing a railway track in Assam, officials said on Wednesday.
Four die as car overturns in Rajasthan's Nagaur
Three people and a 15-month-old baby died and four others were injured when a speeding four-wheeler overturned in Rajasthan's Nagaur district, police said Wednesday. The incident occurred late Tuesday night near the Sambhar crossing of the district, they said. The driver seemed to have lost control of the vehicle which led to the accident, Nawa City police station in-charge Satish Kumar said, adding that the exact cause is yet to be ascertained. He said the passengers were going from Deedwana to Jobner after attending a wedding. They were rushed to a nearby hospital soon after the accident but Amit Pareek (35), his 15-month-old daughter Yasmin, Gopal Swami (26) and Vasu Brahmin (30) succumbed to injuries, Kumar said. He said the four injured passengers were undergoing treatment in Jaipur. The bodies were handed over to the family members of the deceased after postmortem and a case has been registered against the driver, Kumar added.
Twelve hurt as German train crashes into lorry
A passenger train slammed into a lorry that became stranded on a rail line in northern Germany on Wednesday, injuring twelve people, two of them seriously, police said. The crash at around 4:30am (0230 GMT) at a level crossing in Alt Duvenstedt, near Flensburg, derailed the regional train, which was carrying 22 passengers. "All of those injured were taken to hospital," a police spokesman told AFP, adding one victim of the crash was flown by helicopter to hospital in the port city of Kiel. The accident happened when the cab of the articulated lorry, towing 70 tonnes of heavy equipment, became stranded at the level crossing. The driver jumped clear before the crash, police told news agency DPA. Police said it was unclear why the truck became stuck at the crossing. The impact badly damaged the front of the train, which was lifted off the tracks. Rail travel between Flensburg and Hamburg is expected to be severely disrupted for most of Wednesday, police said, because of damage to ...
Fire breaks out at plastic factory in outer Delhi's Bawana
A fire broke out at a plastic factory near a mall in outer Delhi's Bawana Industrial Area Wednesday afternoon, Delhi Fire Service officials said. According to the fire department, a call about the blaze was received at 2.40 pm, following which 30 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire broke out in the basement and spread to the ground and three floors of the plastic factory located near Vardhman Mall, a senior official from the Delhi Fire Service said. The fire-fighting operations are underway, the official said adding that no reports of injury or casualty has been reported yet. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained, he said.
Cyclone Fani: Toll rises to 41, power restoration work in full swing
The toll in cyclone Fani on Wednesday rose to 41, while power restoration work is on full wing in the affected areas with additional skilled manpower being drawn from other states, an official said. The toll was 37 till Tuesday, the district collectors have confirmed four more deaths due to the cyclone which made a landfall in Puri on Friday, Information and Public Relations secretary Sanjay Singh said without naming the districts from where fresh deaths were reported. The official said restoration of water supply was the first priority of the state government after the cyclone and it has been achieved in both Bhubaneswar and most parts of Puri. "We have engaged diesel generators in places for running the water pumps where electricity is not available," he said. "We will be able to fully restore power supply in the state capital by May 12," Singh said while briefing the media on the restoration works following the massive devastation due to the cyclone which ripped apart water supply,
Police: Harlem fire claims 6 lives, including 4 children
The New York Fire Department says six people, including four children, were killed in an early morning blaze in a Harlem apartment building. Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro says they received a call reporting the blaze at 1:40 a.m. Wednesday from a person across the street from the seven-story Fred Samuels Houses on Seventh Avenue near 142 Street. Nigro says firefighters responded within three minutes to the fifth-floor fire. He says firefighters aggressively moved in to extinguish the flames and when they reached two rear bedrooms they found the bodies of two adults and four children ranging in ages from 3 to 11. They are all believed to be family members. Nigro says roughly 100 firefighters were on the scene and it took more than an hour to get the fire under control.
FAW outbreak affects over 5,000 farmer families in Mizoram
An outbreak of 'Fall Armyworm' has affected at least 5,636 farming families in over 200 villages in Mizoram, state Agriculture Director Rohmingthanga Colney said Wednesday. The outbreak caused by the crop pest has affected maize cultivation in 2,055 hectares in 227 villages of all the eight districts, he said. Mizoram government had informed the Centre about an estimated crop loss of Rs 20 crore caused by the FAW outbreak in the state. Colney told PTI that 65.60 per cent of the maize cultivation area in the state has been affected by the pest. The state government has constituted a Rapid Response Team to monitor the outbreak and take up measures to mitigate the loss of crops, he said. Agriculture experts said that FAW is a lepidopteran pest feeding on multiple plants (polyphagous). Experts said that dwindling population of birds in the state due to poaching have disturbed the ecological balance, resulting in the FAW outbreak.
One dead, one injured after house partially collapses in Mumbai
One person lost his life while another was severely injured when part of a single storey house collapsed in Pathan Chawl of Qureshi Nagar on Wednesday.Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB), state police, ambulance and ward staff reached the site of the accident to carry out rescue work in the area.The cause of the collapse is yet to be known.Further details are awaited.
Cyclone Fani: Odisha death toll rises to 41
The death toll in Odisha so far due to cyclone Fani has increased to 41, even as people are struggling to get electricity amidst the gruelling summer, which has made life more miserable.
Seven feared dead in Siberia avalanche
Seven hikers were missing and feared dead after an avalanche in Russia's Altai mountains, emergency officials said Wednesday, as search parties were dispatched to the area. Nine people were caught in the avalanche Monday in the so-called Chuya Alps of Russia's Altai republic in southern Siberia, close to Kazakhstan and China. "Two people managed to get out" and informed authorities on Wednesday, said the head of Altai's emergency services, Andrei Burlakov. "Since the avalanche is rather large, the search and rescue operations can stretch out to an indefinite amount of time," he said. The hikers were experienced adults following a complicated mountain route which was approved by the authorities, their instructor Vladimir Yudin told the BFM news website, adding that a comprehensive search would probably have to wait for the summer season. He said the hikers were part of a group based in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk.
Eight hurt as German train crashes into lorry
A passenger train slammed into a lorry that became stranded on a rail line in northern Germany on Wednesday, injuring at least eight people, two of them seriously, police said. The crash at around 4:30am (0230 GMT) at a level crossing in Alt Duvenstedt, near Flensburg, derailed the regional train, which was carrying 22 passengers. One of the injured was flown by helicopter to hospital in the port city of Kiel. The accident happened when the cab of the articulated lorry, towing 70 tonnes of heavy equipment, became stranded at the level crossing. The driver jumped clear before the crash, police told news agency DPA. Police said it was unclear why the truck became stuck at the crossing. The impact badly damaged the front of the train, which was lifted off the tracks. Rail travel between Flensburg and Hamburg is expected to be severely disrupted for most of Wednesday, police said, because of damage to overhead lines and the tracks. "A special train from (national rail operator) Deutsche .
CIL's coal allocation under spot e-auction drops 38% in FY19
State-owned Coal India Limited's coal allocation under spot e-auction scheme declined by 37.7 per cent to 34.34 million tonnes in the last fiscal (2018-19). The country's top dry-fuel miner had allocated 55.17 million tonnes (MT) of coal in FY 2018, according to government data. However, the coal allocated by the PSU under the scheme in March increased by 10.2 per cent to 4.18 MT, compared to 3.79 MT in the corresponding month of FY 2018, it said. Coal distribution through e-auction was introduced with a view to provide access to coal for such buyers who are not able to source the dry fuel through the available institutional mechanism, as per the information available on CIL website. The purpose of e-auction is to provide equal opportunity to purchase coal online through single window service to all intending buyers. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output. The company reported a growth of 7 per cent in coal production to 606.9 million tonnes in 2018-19, a ...