A 30-year-old man died, while three persons including a woman suffered severe burns in a fire accident at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit at Chinnayathapalem village in Sabbavaram mandal of Anakapalli district on Tuesday morning.
The deceased has been identified as B. Mahesh, a native of Gollalapalem village in Sabbavaram mandal. The injured are B. Shankar Rao (50) from Peddapuram in East Godavari district, G. Kamala Kumari (46) of Vepadu in Vizianagaram district and N. Durga Prasad (35) from Kancharapalem in Visakhapatnam district. The condition of Shankar Rao was said to be critical.
According to police sources, a native of Anakapalli town has been running the illegal cracker unit from an asbestos shed located in a coconut grove at Chinnayathapalem village.
As per the preliminary investigation, the police suspect that mishandling of chemicals during manufacturing of firecrackers could be the reason for the fire accident. No basic fire preventive measures such as water or sand buckets were found at the site.
The police seized potassium, sulphur and firecrackers from a store room built at some distance from the manufacturing unit.
Pendurthi MLA A. Adeep Raju, Superintendent of Police S. Gowthami, Parawada Deputy SP P. Srinivasa Rao, a police team from Sabbavaram and bomb disposal team conducted checks at the cracker unit.
The incident has brought to the fore the issues pertaining to unauthorised firecracker manufacturing units in Anakapalli district. During the investigation, police found that the manufacturing unit owner had appointed people with some experience in manufacturing firecrackers.
“Before the Ganesh Chavithi festival, we had conducted rigorous checks at all suspected locations of unauthorised firecracker units. However, we did miss this one as the unit was being run very secretly. Even the locals, sachivalayam volunteers, Mahila Police were not aware of this unit,” said a senior police officer.
He also said that manhunt had been launched for the cracker unit owner. “We suspect that the cracker unit owner has been involved in this illegal business since the last one-and-a-half years. We can ascertain from where he was procuring the raw material only after he is taken into custody,” he said.
