110 killed, 350 injured in India's temple fire
Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:14:am World
3.7K By sosa hills
In the worst-ever pyrotechnics tragedy to strike Kerala, 110 persons were killed and close to 400 injured, many of them grievously, on Sunday.
Disaster struck the crowded precincts of the Puttingal Devi Temple at Paravur, south of Kollam, around 3.30 a.m. when an entire dump of fire crackers meant to be burst to mark the conclusion of the Meena-Bharani festival exploded, killing over 40 persons instantly, maiming many more and causing extensive damage to nearby buildings.
The State government has announced a judicial inquiry and a Crime Branch investigation into the disaster.
Eyewitnesses said disaster struck when a cracker meant to explode in the air fell to the ground, sending sparks flying in all directions. The sparks reached the storehouse, igniting fireworks stored there. The explosion that followed brought down a building and caused damage to several structures in the vicinity.
The explosion was followed by power disruption, which left the crowd clueless about the magnitude of the tragedy for some time. However, the locals swung into action, extricating bodies from the debris and pulling out the injured, many of whom did not survive the journey to hospitals.
While the majority were admitted to the general hospital and private hospitals in Kollam city, 12 of the injured were rushed to the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital and to some private hospitals in the capital.
The official said, on condition of anonymity, that the death toll may go up as the condition of some are said to be critical.
Indian military choppers have been pressed into service to ferry the injured to the hospitals and the state government has cancelled the leaves of all doctors and demanding them to report to duty.
According to officials, a spark had actually ignited a stack of fireworks, triggering the fire.
"It was a spark from the crackers being burst that fell into the stack of crackers kept on ground, leading to the fire," another official said.
Local TV channels showed footage of white smoke billowing from the temple and also reported that successive explosions from stack of crackers caused some parts of the temple roof to cave in.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his remark said the inferno was "heart-rending and shocking."
Disaster struck the crowded precincts of the Puttingal Devi Temple at Paravur, south of Kollam, around 3.30 a.m. when an entire dump of fire crackers meant to be burst to mark the conclusion of the Meena-Bharani festival exploded, killing over 40 persons instantly, maiming many more and causing extensive damage to nearby buildings.
The State government has announced a judicial inquiry and a Crime Branch investigation into the disaster.
Eyewitnesses said disaster struck when a cracker meant to explode in the air fell to the ground, sending sparks flying in all directions. The sparks reached the storehouse, igniting fireworks stored there. The explosion that followed brought down a building and caused damage to several structures in the vicinity.
The explosion was followed by power disruption, which left the crowd clueless about the magnitude of the tragedy for some time. However, the locals swung into action, extricating bodies from the debris and pulling out the injured, many of whom did not survive the journey to hospitals.
While the majority were admitted to the general hospital and private hospitals in Kollam city, 12 of the injured were rushed to the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital and to some private hospitals in the capital.
The official said, on condition of anonymity, that the death toll may go up as the condition of some are said to be critical.
Indian military choppers have been pressed into service to ferry the injured to the hospitals and the state government has cancelled the leaves of all doctors and demanding them to report to duty.
According to officials, a spark had actually ignited a stack of fireworks, triggering the fire.
"It was a spark from the crackers being burst that fell into the stack of crackers kept on ground, leading to the fire," another official said.
Local TV channels showed footage of white smoke billowing from the temple and also reported that successive explosions from stack of crackers caused some parts of the temple roof to cave in.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his remark said the inferno was "heart-rending and shocking."
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