Kerala temple fire leaves scores dead after stray firework sparks blasts

State official says nearly 100 people died in explosions and fire during Hindu new year celebrations at the Puttingal temple

Emergency rescuers are sifting through the wreckage of a Hindu temple in Kerala after a huge fire caused by a fireworks display tore through the complex and killed at least 100 people.

Indian authorities deployed emergency personnel from the air force, navy and national disaster response force on Sunday to help firefighters, police and local hospitals cope with the injured and locate survivors after the blaze at the Puttingal temple in the village of Paravoor, southern India.

Local officials said at least 100 people, many of whom had been trapped inside the temple, had died, and more than 380 had been injured.


Police said that the fire, which began at around 3.30am local time during a Hindu new year festival, began after a stray firework fell onto a pyrotechnic storeroom, causing a series of explosions.




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Pictures from Puttingal temple in Kollam (Kerala) when fire broke out that claimed 75 lives, 200 injured.




Chaos subsequently erupted among the approximately 6,000 people who had gathered for the celebrations.
“It came like a storm, throwing everyone to the ground,” Anish Kumar, who had gone with his friends to see the display, told AFP.

“There were bodies all over the place and the injured were writhing in pain. I was horrified to see hundreds of men and women on the ground lifeless.” One of his own friends was among the dead, he said.

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples and during religious occasions in India, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.

On Sunday a judicial enquiry was opened into the Paravoor disaster, with forensic experts on the ground and police investigating why the festival’s organisers had conducted a pyrotechnic display for which they had not been granted permission.

Fireworks are banned in the district of Kollam. A Shainamol, a senior official, told journalists permission had been denied over fears that competing groups would try to outdo one another. “They were clearly told that no permission would be given for any kind of fireworks,” Shainamol said.
“There was no permission to even store the fireworks,” said Kerala’s chief minister Oommen Chandy.

Visiting a hospital where many of the injured - many of whom were suffering more than 50% burns - were taken, prime minister Narendra Modi said the accident was heart-rending and shocking beyond words.

“The incident is so grave that it is very difficult to describe in words. People who were 200 metres away were also hurt,” he said. “And right now the doctor was telling me that some of the blasts were such that some peoples’ bodies were blown apart.”

Police said that the presence of dynamite sticks in the storeroom may have explained the speed with which the fire had spread.

The subsequent explosion caused a roof to collapse, crushing worshippers inside. At one of the main hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital located about 37 miles south of Paravoor, Dr Thomas Mathew told AP a stampede was also likely to have occurred.

Krishna Das, a resident of Paravoor, said he had started to walk away from the temple as the fireworks display was about to end when he heard a deafening explosion followed by a series of other blasts.

“I had been in the temple just a few minutes before watching the fireworks,” Das said. He said he had seen scores of people running away from fires and falling chunks of concrete and plaster from the temple building.

As the first explosion was heard, power to the complex was cut, he said. “It was complete chaos. People were screaming in the dark. Ambulance sirens went off, and in the darkness no one knew how to find their way out.”
Jayashree Harikrishnan, a local resident, said successive blasts had sent “huge pieces of concrete flying through the air. “Chunks landed in our yard,” she said.


By Sunday morning firefighters had managed to control the blaze, allowing rescue and relief teams to start looking for survivors. Footage from the fire showed huge clouds of smoke rising from the temple and relatives weeping as they tried to find their relatives in the chaos.

Modi announced 200,000 rupees (£2,127) in compensation for the families of those killed and 50,000 rupees for those injured.

The temple trust was not immediately available for comment.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/10/india-temple-fire-kollam-deaths-kerala-vishu



Was watching on TV news, many people were burnt to death, what a horrifying way to die.