Major fire in firecracker factory claims three lives in West Bengal

Kolaghat (West Bengal), Oct.17 (ANI): Three persons died and several villagers injured as a major fire broke out in an illegal fireworks factory in Kolaghat town of West Bengal on Sunday.

The inferno occurred when the huge stockpile of crackers caught fire. Other investigative details were awaited till the time of filing this report.

The firecrackers caused such a huge explosion that the roof of the factory was blown off. Soon, the fire spread to other settlements in the neighbourhood and led to many locals inhabiting these getting injured due to fire.

According to Nirmal Bera, a villager, the illegal fireworks factories flourish in small villages away from the city and these incidents have become a usual sight due to authorities' negligence.

"This was an illegal fireworks factory. Government should take steps to check on such incidents. Such incidents have occurred here on earlier occasions too but the then government assured us that illegal fireworks industry would be banned. But they did not do anything about it. As a result of which we have again lost some villagers and workers. We are scared," Bera said.

However, it took fire fighters two hours to control the spread of fire. Charred bodies of the workers were taken out after the flames were doused.

Police officials, however, have taken along some crackers' making material for the place of incident for further investigation. (ANI)