Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will visit Pune's Serum Institute of India tomorrow (Friday, January 22) after fire killed five workers on Thursday at its Manjari plant.
"CM Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray will visit the unit of @SerumInstIndia in Manjri, Pune, where the fire mishap took place to inspect & take stock of the situation tomorrow at noon," tweeted the CMO. Reportedly, Uddhav also spoke to SII CEO Adar Poonawala regarding the incident.
Earlier, the Chief Minister said that according to the preliminary information fire occurred due to an electric fault during the on-going construction works. "The Fire Brigade personnels have worked on a war footing to bring the fire under control," he added.
Meanwhile, as many as five people died in the fire that broke out at Serum Institute of India's (SII) Manjari plant on Thursday afternoon. A total of six people have been rescued from the spot.
"The five people who died were perhaps the workers at the under-construction building. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained but it is being speculated that welding, that was going on at the building, caused the fire," said Pune Mayor Murlidhar Mohol.
Besides, Adar Poonawalla offered condolences to the family members of the deceased. "We have just received some distressing updates; upon further investigation, we've learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to family members of the departed," Poonawalla tweeted.
Earlier, SII CEO had said there would be no loss of COVISHIELD production due to multiple production buildings. "I would like to reassure all governments and 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 @SerumInstIndia. Thank you very much Pune City Police and Fire Department," Poonawalla said in another tweet.
Reportedly, the fire broke out at about 2:45 pm at an under-construction building where vaccine production was supposed to start after a month. The fire broke out at 4th and 5th floor of the SEZ3 building. BCG vaccine laboratory was there at 3rd floor of the same building but that is unaffected. The COVISHIELD plant is almost about 1km distance from fire incident site.
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