3 dead, 5 houses destroyed in Erode firecracker blast in Tamil Nadu

ERODE: The residents of Sasthri Nagar in Erode woke up to the deafening noise of crackers, a fallout of a blast that left three dead and damaged five houses. Sources said that Sugumar, a resident of Valayakara Street, owned two houses on Vinayakar Koil Street. He had rented out one house for commercial purpose to one Jesmin, and was using the adjacent house as a godown to store crackers. 

In 2017, Sugumar and son Karthik Raja (21), who was studying BE final year at a private college, began selling crackers in front of the shop. They were planning to sell crackers this year too. Karthikraja had brought as many as 15 bags of crackers in a van with the help of Murugan (40), a resident of Surampatti Anaikattu, a grocery shop owner, who was helping Karthikraja unload crackers, and Senthurpandi (50) from Sudhanandan Nagar, an auto driver, who accompanied the latter. 

When a bubble top water can accidently fell on one of the bags kept inside the auto, the crackers burst, destroying five houses, including two of Sugumar’s. The explosion was heard by residents even a km away. While Karthikraja, Murugan and Senthurpandi died on the spot, Jesmin’s son Manoj, a class VII student, who was standing near Sugumar’s house escaped unhurt. 

On information, Erode Town DSP Radhakrishnan, DRO S Kavitha and SP S Sakthiganesan visited the spot. “They were selling crackers called Kal Vedi (stone cracker) or Vengaya Vedi (onion cracker), banned by the government. Usually, such crackers are not produced by popular units and are discreetly sold in villages,” the locals said.