Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Monday announced ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to each to the family members of those who died in the Bahragora incident and Rs 50,000 for the injured persons. The death toll in the tragic fire incident at an illegal cracker factory in Bahragora of East Singhbhum District reached nine with recovery of another body in the dilapidated building on Monday morning.
The fire broke out in the cracker factory which was being run illegally insider a three storied building at Kumardubi village under Bahragora Block of Jamshedpur.
Meanwhile, Kolhan Commissioner Braj Mohan Kumar and DIG Saket Kumar Singh have been asked to do a thorough probe into the incident and also to initiate departmental proceedings against officer in charge of concerned police station.
After death of two women in the mishap, the district administration came into action and pressed into service a heavy duty crane for rescue operation. Four bodies were recovered under the debris. The victims, include a one-year-old child.
Body of another woman was found inside the building early Monday morning, thus taking the toll to nine, three of them being women.
According to information, four persons were injured in the fire mishap. Two injured were shifted to Tata Main Hospital from Baharagora hospital and another burnt victim to the MGM Medical College Hospital's burn care unit.
One of the burnt victims Banmali Mahar (35) succumbed to his burns at the TMH's burn care unit early Monday morning.
As the news reached the city, East Singhbhum Deputy Commissioner, Amit Kumar, Senior SP, Anoop T Mathew and SP (Rural) Prabhat Kumar rushed the spot. Mathew said the investigation into the mishap is on and four bodies were found under the debris which was removed by pressing a heavy duty crane. He said four of the victims died after coming under the debris while the rest five succumbed to burn injuries.
“As per our information the tragedy struck when some persons were manufacturing crackers at the second floor of a three-storeyed building. The fire incident took place because of mishandling of explosive materials while manufacturing crackers. As the fire spread, an lPG cylinder which was kept on the same floor blew off," said the senior SP.
The house where the crackers were being made belonged to one Durga Patar Santra, who was also partially burnt in the mishap. He said three members of Santra's family were killed in the mishap.
Mathew said they entered into the devastated building at 9 am today and found that there was a cracker manufacturing activity going on inside the building.
A 25-member team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rushed from Ranchi to Kumardubi this morning. The NDRF team led by inspector Saroj Kumar reached at the spot at 10 am, but by that time the local administration had completed the rescue operation.
“We are yet to ascertain the reason behind the fire. Though local residents claim that the fire was triggered due to a lightning, we believe that mishandling of the explosive materials while manufacturing the crackers had caused the fire,” noted a police official.
SP, (Rural) Prabhat Kumar who was also at the spot whole night rejected the lightning angle behind the fire. “I don’t think that lightning could have resulted in such massive fire. We are talking to the locals and are confident to reach to a conclusion,” he noted.