Death toll rises to 14 in Attibele firecracker accident in Bengaluru outskirts

Death toll rises to 14 in Bengaluru fire cracker mishap. Owner of the firecracker shop-cum-godown and his son have been charged for negligence. Fire was caused due to illegal storage of over 1,000 kilos of crackers beyond permissible limits.

The death toll in the fire cracker mishap at Attibele on the outskirts of Bengaluru, has reached 14 up from 13 on October 7 night. A fire mishap occurred at Balaji Cracker Shop, a cracker shop cum godown, on Saturday due to an explosion while crackers were being unloaded from a vehicle transported into the godown.

The police have identified 11 bodies — Prakash, 20, a resident of Neepathurai village; Vettappan, 25, Aathikesavan, 23, Vijayaraghavan, 20, Ilambaruthi, 19, Akash, 23, Giri, 22, Sachin, 22, all residents of Ammapettai village; both in Harur taluk of Dharmapuri district, and Prabhakaran, 17, Vasantharaj, 23, Appas, 23, hailing from Kallakuruchi district of Tamil Nadu.

Sources in the police said that since the bodies were heavily charred, it was a herculean task to identify them. Meanwhile, there are three unidentified bodies kept at Oxford Medical College Hospital, Attibele. Teams from Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Madiwala are expected to carry out DNA tests on these bodies to match with samples from their relatives, to identify them.

A total of seven persons have been injured in the accident. Three of the injured, Naveen Reddy — son of the owner of the cracker shop Ramaswamy Reddy — and Rajesh and Venkatesh, are being treated at St. John’s Medical College Hospital. They suffered severe burn injuries and internal burn injuries due to inhalation of smoke. The next 72 hours are critical, sources said. Four others — Sanjay, Chandru, Rajesh and Paul Kabir — are being treated at Oxford Medical college Hospital, Attibele.

The Attibele police have registered an FIR against the owner Mr. Ramaswamy and his son Mr. Naveen, charging them for causing death due to negligence and also under various sections of The Explosive Substances Act, 1908. Alok Mohan, DG&IGP, Karnataka State Police said a total of 35 persons were working at the godown cum shop of which 14 were dead, seven injured and two persons have been arrested in the case.

FSL teams camping at the accident site and Fire and Emergency Service personnel who put out the fire on Saturday said the shop also acted as a godown for fire crackers illegally. There were large quantities of crackers, beyond permissible limits, stored in the shop without any safety guidelines, which led to the fire accident.