Govt agencies launch probe to ascetrain SII fire cause

Pune, Jan 22: Top officials from fire wings of three Maharashtra government agencies on Friday launched a probe to ascertain the cause of the blaze that killed five workers at Serum Institute of India’s premises here.
Heads of fire departments of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) are part of the joint probe team.
Five contractual labourers had died in the fire which broke out in a five-storeyed under-construction building in the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises on Thursday. The fire damaged the top two floors of the building located in ‘SEZ 3’ area of the premises of the vaccine major.
Devendra Potphode, Chief Fire Officer, PMRDA, said officials from the planning and development authority, PMC, and MIDC have come together to ascertain the cause of the fire in the building. Meanwhile, police have registered an accidental death and burning incident case with the Hadapsar police station, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 5) Namrata Patil.
“As we are seeing today, theentire floor (4th and 5th) has been damaged. We are trying to ascertain the cause of thefire as well as how the fire spread,” said Potphode.
Several types of equipmentwere damaged in the blaze, he said.
“On the basis of findings from all the agencies, a conclusion will be reached on a how the fire started,” he added.
The PMRDA officer declined to speculate on possible causes of the fire at this juncture. (PTI)