In a gruesome tragedy, six workers were killed on the spot when a powerful explosion ripped through a private fireworks factory at Appanaickenpatti village near Sattur in this southern district of Tamil Nadu on Saturday.
According to police, the fire broke out at the Sainath Fireworks factory when the workers were engaged in mixing highly inflammable chemicals meant for making fancy variety crackers.
A series of powerful explosions razed down four warehouses, where a huge stock of finished crackers and chemicals was stored.
Tamil Nadu Fire and Rescue Services department personnel from Sattur rushed to the factory and extinguished the fire.The dead were identified as Meenakshi Sundaram, Sivakumar, Kamaraj, Velmurugan, Kannan, and Nagaraj.
The rescue operation is still underway to find out if there are any other workers trapped under the debris.The bodies trapped under the debris were retrieved after a couple of hours of operation and removed to the Virudhunagar government hospital for post-mortem.
Preliminary investigations revealed that friction while handling the chemicals triggered the fire.
However, the exact reason for the explosion is under investigation.
District Collector V.P. Jeyaseelan, who rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operations, told newsmen that a detailed investigation is underway to find out if there was any violation of safety norms by the factory.
Police have registered a case under five relevant sections against four persons, including Balaji and Sasibalan, owners of the factory, besides managers Doss and Prakash.(UNI)
