Rescue personnel comb through the debris at the factory after the explosion
Four people, including three women workers, died in an explosion at Anandam Fireworks, a cracker factory in Tamil Nadu's Madurai district yesterday. Eighteen other workers suffered injuries.
According to fire and rescue service officials, the explosion took place near Chekkanoorani last evening.
The fire was brought under control in twenty minutes. Officials say that the explosion was so strong that one body was found on a fifty-foot high rooftop.
Officials suspect that mishandling of chemicals during the mixing process could have led to the explosion.
One official told NDTV, "Mixing of chemicals should ideally be done early in the morning when it is neither cold nor hot; it should be in the earmarked sheds but workers have done this in the open when the temperature was high. This is gross violation."
With Diwali round the corner, cracker production at the factories is in full swing and many employees work overtime.
Officials say that the unit was checked a few days ago and no gross violations were found. However, some licences had not been renewed and the factory's applications in that regard were still pending, they said.
In the last one year, at least 45 workers have lost their lives in explosions at cracker factories in the state's southern districts, particularly at Sivakasi, the cracker capital, where 38 people died in a single incident.