Kollam: Sunday, Heavy fire broke out in the Kollam, Kerala at Kali temple where annual festival was celebrating. Rocketed out of control at 3.30am and meanwhile the celebration 112 people were dead and speculated 400 people were injured, turning a half-km blast radius from the epicenter into scorched earth.
Cops confined five people and filed cases against Varkala Krishnankutty and Kazhakoottam Surendran, the contractors entrusted with the fireworks by the temple authorities on late Sunday. Krishnankutty is absconding while Surendran was critically injured in the blaze. Speculatively, around 15000 people were present in the temple at the time of the incident.
And temple authorities were prima facie guilty of violating the district administration's order against holding a fireworks show. However, it was also violated that Supreme Court directed that no firework would be allow to use after 10pm.
The incident was so massive that the impact of the blast seen even 2km away as galss façade of a show room was shattered and two storeys building in the vicinity caved in. Relatives, Union government has announced who died will receive Rs 10 lakh as assistance from the state government. Those who are seriously injured will receive Rs 2 lakh each and those with minor injuries will receive Rs 50,000 each. Also, Rs 2 lakh as compensation for the kin of each deceased person.