Two killed as fire erupts at crackers stall in Vijayawada

VIJAYAWADA: Two people were killed when a fire broke out at a makeshift firecracker stall set up in Gymkhana grounds under the Satyanarayanapuram police station limits in Vijayawada on Sunday.The deceased have been identified as Kaasi of Vijayawada and Brahmam from Piduguralla. They used to work in a cloth store, whose owner had also set up the firecrackers stall. The incident occurred around 7 am when traders were shifting crackers into the shops. Of the 19 shops, three were gutted. Panic prevailed in the locality for sometime as the crackers began to burst one after another due to the fire. 

As many as four fire tenders immediately rushed to the spot on receiving the information and extinguished the fire. Vijayawada Central constituency MLA Malladi Vishnu, city police commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata and other officials visited the scene and took stock of the situation. Satyanarayanapuram police along with fire department officials has registered a case.

Investigation has begun to ascertain the cause of the fire, Kanthi Rana said and added that the workers who died are believed to be asleep when the fire broke out. “We are collecting details of the firecrackers that were in the stall during the time of the incident,” the CP explained. It is being suspected that the owner of the stall purchased low-quality flower pots from a local manufacturer which resulted in the mishap, sources in the fire wing of the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) said.VMC officials gave permission to a total of 60 persons to set up firecracker stalls in three places. They include Gymkhana grounds, Music College near Food Junction and Makineni Basava Punnaya Stadium in Ajit Singh Nagar. Fire, revenue and police departments had given the permissions for the same.

“Clues team collected samples from the scene and sent them to a laboratory for testing. We noticed labels of some local manufacturing unit on the boxes of flower pots. Investigation is on to find the manufacturer and supplier of the flower pots. Stringent action would be initiated against those responsible for the fire,” a municipal corporation official on the condition of anonymity said.