Sivakasi:
Twelve people have been arrested in connection with the massive fire that broke out at a fire-cracker factory near Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu yesterday. 38 people have been killed and at least 60 others have been injured in the fire.
Here are the latest developments in this story:
The police are yet to trace the owner of the factory, identified as a man called Murugesan. He is the accused number one in the case. A search is also on for six other contractors.
Among the 12 people arrested for the fire at Om Sakthi Crackers are three contractors, a chemical mixer and the factory lessee Paul Pandi, who according to the police is accused number two in the case. Mr Murugesan, who held the licence to run the factory, had leased it to Mr Pandi, which was illegal.
More than 40 violations of safety norms like over-crowding, wrong mixing of chemicals and overstocking, have allegedly been discovered. The state Explosives Department had suspended the factory's licence on Tuesday. The factory should not have been running operations yesterday.
Most of those killed were relatives of workers and others standing anxiously outside the factory and the fire raged. They were hit by stone splinters and even by the firecrackers called "rockets". Some of these bystanders fell ill from the strong fumes.
Over 300 workers were believed to have been inside the factory when the fire broke out on Wednesday afternoon. But most of them reportedly managed to escape the building.
The fire broke out at the factory at about 12:30 pm on Wednesday. It took 10 fire tenders close to five hours to bring it under control. They had to approach cautiously as there were explosions and huge flames in the building.
There are 52 still in hospital. Those seriously injured were taken to a multi-specialty hospital in Madurai, 100 kilometres from Sivakasi. The others were admitted to a government hospital in Sivakasi and also in Virudhnagar.
All 60 rooms in the factory building were gutted. These included 20 rooms that stored chemicals.
The fire also spread to godowns about 200 feet away. Two of the three godowns in the factory were burnt down.
Sivakasi is India's biggest hub for the manufacture of matches and fire crackers. Work to meet the Diwali demand for crackers has been on in full swing in Sivakasi factories and factories have employees at work in full strength.
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