A.P. cracker unit blast: Firework flashes and silhouetted grief  Premium

Tragic firecracker unit explosion in Andhra Pradesh leaves eight dead, highlighting the dangers of illegal firecracker manufacturing.

Like every other day, Sangarthi Jayalakshmi, in her mid-30s, prepared a lunchbox for her husband, Sangarthi Govindu, 41, on April 13. She saw him off to work from the doorstep of their modest house in Kailasapatnam village, Kotavuratla mandal, Anakapalli district, Andhra Pradesh.

Around 1 p.m. that day, Jayalakshmi received a phone call asking her to rush to the firecracker unit where Govindu had been working for 12 years. She was told that the blast she heard a few minutes ago was from the firecracker unit, and the room where the workers manufactured the crackers had collapsed after an explosion.

The shock of reality hit her when she saw the charred remains of the firecracker unit and learnt that the locals, police and fire personnel were trying to retrieve her husband’s body from underneath the sooty heap of rubble, which was now emanating a thick grey smoke after the fire was doused.

Govindu, along with seven others, died in the blast at the main unit of a licensed firecracker manufacturing plant that day. Eight others, including the owner, were grievously injured with burns varying from 90% to 30% severity. Of the two workers who were in critical condition, one died on April 17.

Days after the blast, Jayalakshmi and her two children are still learning to picture Govindu’s smiling face as they are haunted by the memories of the charred remains of his body.

“My father, Govindu, was a farmer, a daily wager, and a man full of dreams,” says his daughter, Lahari, 20, a B. Tech student at an engineering college in Rajamahendravaram, 130 kilometres away. “He always wanted us to grow in life and not turn into daily wage workers like him and struggle to make ends meet,” recollects a teary-eyed Lahari.  

“He always wanted us to grow in life and not turn into daily wage workers like him and struggle to make ends meet,” recollects a teary-eyed Lahari.