On Thursday afternoon, a major fire broke at the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises in Pune leaving 5 men dead. According to the police, all were construction workers whose bodies were recovered by fire brigade personnel from the fifth floor. Soon after the news broke, CEO Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter and wrote, “We have just received some distressing updates; upon further investigation we have learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life at the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also expressed his condolences over the death of 5 workers in fire at Pune’s Serum Institute. “Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire at the Serum Institute. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that those injured recover at the earliest,” PM Modi tweeted.
Here are the top developments:
A major fire broke out at the Serum Institute of India’s (SII) vaccine manufacturing plant at Hadapsar in the city on Thursday afternoon. However, the blaze did not affect the institute’s Covid vaccine manufacturing facility, which remains safe.
The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccines used in the nationwide inoculation drive against the pandemic are made. The building where fire broke out is one km from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit.
“I would like to reassure all governments & the public that there would be no loss of #COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at Serum institute,” Adar Poonawalla said.
PM Modi also expressed grief over the deaths of the workers. “Anguished by the loss of lives due to an unfortunate fire at the @SerumInstIndia. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that those injured recover at the earliest,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.
Cyrus Poonawalla, SII Chairman and Managing Director said families of each deceased will get a compensation of Rs 25 lakh. “Today is an extremely sorrowful day for all of us at Serum Institute of India. Regrettably, there were losses of lives in the fire that broke out in our under installation facility situated at the Special Economic Zone at Manjri,” he said in a statement.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will visit the unit of Serum Institute of India in Manjri today after a major fire broke on the company’s Pune plant leaving 5 dead, said CM office. While visiting the site of the mishap, the chief minister will inspect and take stock of the situation today at noon, said Office of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.