Maximum deaths follow second explosion that took rescuers by surprise
Thirty-eight persons, including two women, most of them believed to be villagers who rushed to the site of an explosion at a cracker unit, were killed when a large stock of explosives blew up on Wednesday afternoon. Thirty-three persons were wounded and have been admitted to government hospitals in Virudhunagar district and Madurai.
The tragedy took place at Mudalipatti, 13 km from Sivakasi, a region known for frequent accidents in the match and fireworks industries.
Though no bodies were found on the premises of Om Sakthi Fireworks Industries during the initial search by police and revenue officials, the death toll was confirmed after the removal of concrete sheds of at least three working areas flattened in the impact of the explosion. With earthmovers not reaching the site early, rescue work could not be taken up till 6.30 p.m.
The first explosion at the unit, one of the biggest in the region, was reported at 12.20 p.m. Villagers of Mudalipatti and workers of a nearby blue metal crusher unit rushed to the spot. A small posse of police tried to prevent the villagers from entering the unit, but the 500-strong crowd managed to get past the police. “Our inspector Raja tried to stop them but they did not heed his words,” said Virudhunagar Superintendent of Police Najmul Hoda.
“Unexpectedly, there was a huge explosion around 1 p.m. and the debris that flew across a wide distance injured them seriously,” District Revenue Officer R. Raju, who was at the site, said. Crackers and unfinished goods were seen strewn for more than a half-km radius at the entrance. “A huge stone hit the jeep of the Virudhunagar Tahsildar some 500 metres away from the cracker unit.”
Details of the number of workers employed and those present at the time of the incident were not available with officials. Even the police and firemen did not enter the premises for some time on seeing the bodies and the grievous nature of the injuries. Ten fire tenders, including some from Tirunelveli, Tuticorin and Madurai districts, were parked in a serpentine queue outside the unit. The first one entered the unit only at 3.30 p.m. after the entrance was cleared of debris.
Many of the working sheds were damaged as a strong gust of wind fanned the fire. The injured, who were rescued by the villagers, were rushed to the government hospitals.
Keywords: fire cracker unit, Sivakasi, fireworks industry hub
This is again a very tragic event, just like the railway fire accident
that happened more than a month back. I have written several times to
Hindu editor to find out what happened with the report that was due in
15 days, but no one care it seems.
All these newspapers seem to care about is generating eye-balls by
publishing the "hot" news of the day. I expected something different
from Hindu. I will be surprised if my comment gets published!
There are two reasons why this type of explosions are taking place in Sivakasi, the hub of fire works of Asia.
1. Government allowed the concentration of these explosive industries at one park. There are no safety rules here. Safety inspectors are not therre. Even the chemicals they are handling and their detonation power/ ignition temperatures are not known. It is not always necessary to have a spark/ fire. There is aphenomenon called Dust explosion. Which can lead to explosions if concentration of explosibve material exceeds certain limit in the room.
Secondly , there must be extensive training , safe passage/ water reservoirs in a hand distance. . Finished goods must be transported very quickly without stagnation. The incharges should be regularly sent for getting training in safety classes.
DDr BKBRSAO
Safety Expert.
Such an unfortunate incident. Why these type of same fire accident
causing mass casualties occurs once every month in India.Such industries
operating on such big scales have no value for Human life by not having
adequate fire prevention measurement.Well i guess nothing can happen no
matter how many people lose their lives working in such unsafe
environment.We can never learn.
What was the police doing when the first explosion of the unit was reported at 12.20 pm? It is ridiculous on the part of the superintendent of police to say that the inspector could not heed the crowd when they rushed to the spot in huge number.Therefore the government has to take stern action against the concerned persons who could not control the crowd by deploying the police force immediately
after the tragedy.
Now will we see a further mockery of safety norms by the government and these factories by adding on a 2% "safety fee" to cracker prices? Surely it costs more money to follow safety procedures and without an iota of doubt, that money has been saved to provide extra profit to the manufacturer. But now, since it is a given that people will die each year in producing goods for what is essentially a recreational activity, surely this is an opportunity to levy a "safety tax" of some kind?
Too bad these people did not listen to the police. That bit of news
should be highlighted, to prevent these happenings in the future and
create awareness among the masses that the police and firefighters
should be allowed to do their job without interference.
Government should close all fire work factories and it should identify a different employment opportunities for those people (after all, there are lot of improvement works to be done in our country).
Let us find a new way of celebrating 'Deepavali' instead of 'Cracking' enjoyment.
My deep Condolences for them !
Cracker industries need to educate the people about fire safety techniques by conduting fire drill frequently .So that we can prevent these kind of fire accidents atleast in the future.
I hope the Hindu will follow up this news out with an in-depth report,
in which the legal aspects will be fully fleshed out and who is at
fault. Also, are children still working in these factories? Are there
any casualties among the working children?
These events are always a news for us. Neither the government, people nor the business owners cared for these. That is the value of human life in our nation. Shame on the society.
It is unfortunate that despite the high risk of fire involved in cracker factories scant regard is given to improving safety measures. The current incident is proof that security has been given a go by as usual. The tragic loss of life could certainly have been avoided if only due care had been exercised.
This is happening every year during deepavali. Absolutely there is no safety. Children are being employed. After the tragedy Govt gives compensation and it is forgotten till the next tragedy next year. How do these people get license.Like in one of the Tamil Movie all those persons/ officials involved in granting license should be whipped publicly along with the owner. Our land of law doesnt have that kind of teeth. God save the poor souls
Hope we increase safety awareness and minimize fireworks usage in memory of the people who lost their lives. Sincere condolences for those who lost/injured their beloved ones.
These kinds of tragic incidents recur every now and then at different parts of our country. But the authorities responsible to curb them never act according to the lessons learnt. We lack a proper HEALTH AND SAFETY RULE at work place. In the list of countries BY LIFE EXPECTANCY prepared by United Nations, India is at 139th place, much below some poverty-stricken African countries irrespective of the fact that we are at 3rd postion in list of countries BY GDP(PPP) prepared by the World Bank. From it can be presumed that it is not money, but lack of persons with due commitment at responsible position leads to this pathetic situation. Most of our Employees Selection Tests check the candidate's general knowledge and writing skills, but never check his or her ability to do the purported job perfectly.
companies want to make more and more money at the price of poor lives
When will the Water Sprinklers be installed in all the BUILDINGS and
Factories. What about Fire Escapes, Emergency Exits, Fire drills etc.
unfortunately Human Life has got no value....
the chief minister has granted 2akhs each for the bereaved families,if at all her government would have spent one tenth of that money to check and ensure saftey measures before granting licence for such industries and grant them licence only if all saftey measures required are met this could have been avoided, very sad the value of life in our country is so cheap...................whats the point in spending ten times more money now
Even though child labour is prohibited, the factory owners engage children for the reason of cheaper labour cast. These children
without adequate knowledge in handling explosives dealing with
compacting explosives into the cartridges, and without proper adult
supervision carry out the works in urgency for getting more turn over
based payments compacting the explosives manually are unaware of the
pressure required for compaction of the explosive(of course with light
moisture for binding,compress them too much some times due to human
error, that results in blasts.No government supervisions are
undertaken and they are satisfied with the MAMOOLS they receive and
never turn ujp for inspection nor they object child labour.Thus occurs
fire accidents in fire works factories.
Every year because of our Diwali Fun so many people are die-ing..!! We should either
stop bursting crackers or change our system..!! Festival should not be celebrated at
the cost of other lives..!! Lets improve our fire fighting system...
Our heart goes to the bereaved family members of those who lost their
lives in the accident. Special safety measures are called for to avoid
such accidents in future. Government should ensure and give top
priority for the safety of workmen at these make shift factories
particularly during the busy Deepavali season. A safety surcharge can
be levied on crackers sold for installing/providing fire safety
equipment, ambulances and first aid kits and clinics in the immediate vicinity of these vulnerable work spots by the Government at its cost.
Donations to Welfare funds instituted exclusively for the safety and
promotion of the welfare and interest of safety match/cracker factory
workers should be given tax exemption
Sivakasi incident.
Is this happening for the first time. Ever year Before peak Days of
DEPAVALLI this like incident happens. Media makes headlines for few
days, Government Condolences and give money. People Forget after few
Days. Same story Every year.
Not 56 life's its 56 Families are affected Today.
Why the safety nobs are not followed in INDIA. Why authority are
negligent. Do Government Authority educate the people about
firefighting methods. Do they keep mock drills frequently ! all these
need to be made strict by the authorities !!
The recent mishappening is a real shame to the government.Every year there has been major fire accidents in India especially in Sivakasi.
At the beginning of last year about 8 persons were killed in an accident near Virudhunagar.During October, five persons were killed in the same place.About two months before 2 persons were killed owing to the same reason in the district and six persons were killed in another explosion in a fireworks unit near Tuticorin on March 28.
During 2010, eight persons, all of them revenue staff and police personnel, were killed when they raided an illegal unit near Sivakasi in August.
In 2009, 32 persons died in Pallipat near Chennai.At the same year 33 workers were killed in 23 accidents in Sivaksi.
The list will go on as we look further back.
More than 200 lives are gone due to the lack of responsibility from the officials.Each time the officials assured the people of investigation but with no effect and use.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE OR THE GOVT?
Shocked! Sad to hear!! The people who tried to rescue have also become victim!! I believe the factory followed safety rules. The government, industry and labor associations can make come up with additional investment/procedures for safety specifically for Firecracker industry. Before 2000, the accidents were frequent and they have come down now. But less is not enough. Its our people out there and we should aim for zero death, although we cannot achieve zero accidents. I had been to an European restaurant and sat on a chair on the fire exit. The waiter advised me that it was a fire exit, as though they anticipated fire in the next minute. I did not feel bad, because that education on the safety rules is useful if accidents occur. RIP victims !! May god provide the families the strength to recover!!
I think the solution for this problem is to adequately compensate the victims i.e. approx. Rs.500000/- to Rs.1000000/- for each death and penalized the owners of factory with equal amount. Added to this, the owners will have to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years. That way owners will be at their toes to enforce safety and security of workers. My sincere condolence with the families of victims.
here we go again. This is not the first time some private firm flouting government fire safety norms and putting the workers life in danger. i tell you this straight from my heart ' we will never ever ever learn from our mistakes'. It was hard to even watch videos of the accident and the victims. my condolences to the ones who lost their loved ones. Better late than never. At least now, wake up and please don't take fire safety for granted.
Paying homage to the dead and may god bless thier souls rest in peace. Indians and in India we do not have any values for human life. Thats tragedy after tragedy we go for a blame game rather than learn lessons, take ownership, responsibility, accountability and improve systems. According to me, from CM to local DM,including fire dept, building approval officer etc and owner of the factory are sole repsonsible for it. Every one must be sent to jail first and do a routine investigation by sitting judge of HC or just close facroties in isavkasi and show alternate employment to direct and indirect employer for 1Lakh people working in this town.
The frequency in such mishaps shows the callous attitude of the managements of the firework industries and the concerned government officials who have to look into the protective measures towards the safety and security of human lives.These units treat the poor workers so very inhumanly without offering the required best safety measures to protect them from such tragic deaths.Feel sad so many precious lives are lost in a tragedy which could have been averted otherwise. The government should take serious action against all responsible for this huge tragedy.
All we can do now is to find the precise reason for the accident and implement some precautionary measures and make sure that it doesn't happen in the future. But i am damn sure that this would have happened due to negligence of somebody.Hope government provide some necessary aids for them to relieve from this fatal-trauma. Let us pray to god that the death toll doesn't increase anymore.
The Prime responsibility should be owned by the management of the company. They should feel his workforce is one of their family member and ensure safe working conditions in addition to employment. Unless these people are not taken into task things never change and the poor man has to die for governments ignorance. Next Government officials who audit/grand permission for such hazardous Inustries. Now state government should take action for the rootcause so that the other industries will get into action.The government else no one can able to teach lesson to such management unethic behaviour and help the poor waged workforce. Every Business management should follow certain business ethic which takes care the down level workforce and should not worry only for their business earnings .
Compensation of Rs 200000/- per person must be taken out from the terminal benefits of the state government employee and the minister provided they had approved anything which out not to have been approved in the first place for non-compliance of health and safety standards. Now that the fire has engulfed the victims how is it possible to verify whether health and safety norms had indeed been violated? What new foolproof / fire protecton system is going to be implemented with immediate effeect that is also nonexpensive to implement?
I just wonder whate are the norms for running these kind of factories. How does Govt. allot licenses and keep a watch on them. As is given above, such kind of incidents had had happened in the past, it clearly shows the apathy of Govt. I hope Tamil Nadu Govt. will come up with some strict measures this time and bring justice to the affected people.
You throw the safety norms and you pay for that! All these safety norms are in books only. These factory owners care only about their profit and they never mind safety of the workers.
The person who owns this factory must be asked to pay for damages, and strict rules and enforcements should be made in every factory. Or, just not let these kind of makeshift factories operate. Why is public tax money going in to paying for negligence of the company owner? The owner must be making reaping a huge profit by selling his products and not following safety norms.
My heart goes out to these daily wage labourers. Time and again flaunting safety albeit in connivance with the local safety inspectors in the name of peak business has become the norm. For the owners they might salvage their losses through insurance. What about the other unfortunate souls that perishes. The money consolation by the Govt might be a great temporary relief to the victims. But these are real day wage earners probably the both the man and the woman of the house would have been employed there along with employable aged children. Real heart break!We are a nation of idiots who care the least for safety and individual life's value.Shame on all of us.
What about the safety standards? Are we living in the 21st Century
This is extremely sad. Why is it that we never learn? This is not the first time we are having a fire accident in a cracker unit. Isn't the life of a common man worth nothing in our country? This lackadaisical attitude towards safety is all pervasive in our country (Eg: Majority of the two-wheeler riders don't wear helmets, even though that is the law)
How many times this will repeat?. Despite knowing the fact that these
factories are prone to fire accidents, why the authorities do not impose
strict safety rules to them and why don't the owners are warned against
building factories without proper fire exit plan? May God give strength
to the victims and their relatives.
It's not the first time it's happening. Lot of such accidents were happened earlier also. No lessons learned from previous incidents. What
the state govt is doing to ensure the safety of innocent people working
in such factories. those are all daily-wagers. Those behind this tragic
incident must be punished.
Though its a common thing happens usually every year, This is just embarks what the fire & safety council had took the steps all these years when its prone to happen in specified area which paves to so many lives in ashes???
The value for human life has become very low. This is a annual occurence and neither the Govt nor the factory owners take any precautionary measures to prevent future occurences. It is very tragic to see poor and young lives lost unnecessarily.
RIP . nothing to say ..The reason behind the explosion had to be
identified ..life is precious ...
As long as we attach lower importance to safety measures especially wherever pyrotechnics involved there is huge risk of bone and limbs. Even in past many such mishaps took place but we did not do much to prevent such disaster from happening in future. I wish all stakeholders rose upto to the occasion and put in place safest measures so that life would not put on higher risk in future.
This is exactly why we as citizens should be aware of the repercussion of insufficient safety standards in India and should push for it. If this can happen to a firework go-down imagine what can happen to an nuclear atomic plan. We aren't ready yet, not from scientific point of view but from safety point. We don't want to jeopardize innocent lives
Its very Common in Sivakashi....
Does it happens for first time?
The biggest mistake is repeating the same mistake.
"the cause of the fire at the factory on the outskirts of Sivakasi was not immediately known" It is very standard answer. Everyone aware of that there is no safety norms followed in craker factory.
Who is controlling or the apporving fire safety system in these type of industries? Are they doing their job?
Most these type of industries are ignoring Fire safety recommendation, must be penalised for killing innocent, low waged peoples.
30 casualties and 70 injured ?!! I don't know why each and every year same kind of fire accidents occur in Sivakasi fireworks industry, are they built with proper evacuation - fire safety techniques and do they educate the people about firefighting methods also do they keep mock drills frequently ! all these need to be made strict by the authorities ! Condolences for them !
Tragic!!
Reason : Safety Mishap. Until we start giving importance to safety, these things will be everyday news.
Chalta hai attitude for safty.So many accidents happened before ,but never learn
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