Tamil Nadu: Four Workers Charred To Death In Explosion At Firecracker Unit In Thoothukudi

The other workers escaped injury since they were out for having lunch. 

A fire tender near a blast site (Image for representation/ABPNadu)

Chennai: Four workers died in an explosion at a firecracker unit near Kovilpatti in Thoothukudi district on Thursday. Tamil Nadu has reported four major explosions at firecracker units this year. 

According to a report on Times of India, four persons were working in one of the sheds run by New Century Fireworks which is a leading cracker manufacturing firm in the region. The workers were making fancy crackers under a shed with a concrete roof. 

Around 2.10 pm, S Kumar, Thoothukudi DFO said, one of the workers reportedly took a 5 kg chemical mixture into the shed for filling the fancy firecracker when there was a sudden explosion within seconds.

The police suspect that the worker might have dropped the bucket that would have caused friction between the chemical mixture and the floor.

However, the police and fire rescue department retrieved the bodies of the deceased workers who were identified as Jayaraj, Thangavel, Kannan and Ramar from the debris. They sent all the bodies to Kovilpatti GH for autopsy.

The other workers escaped injury since they were out for lunch. 

The police have registered a case against the owner of the unit and started the investigation.

The unit is owned by R Prabhakaran of Rajeev Nagar in Kovilpatti. The mishap site was the only facility of the company in Thoothukudi.

Earlier, three blasts were reported from the cracker manufacturing units in Virudhuagar in January. Five people died in two different accidents on January 30 and January 5. On January 1, four people died in an explosion at a cracker unit near Sivakasi.