Pune: Police authorities, a forensic team and officials from the fire wings of three Maharashtra government agencies on Friday launched a probe to ascertain the cause of the blaze at the Serum Institute of India''s premises here, which claimed five lives.
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 laborers 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, the entire floor (4th and 5th) has been damaged. We are trying to ascertain the cause of the fire as well as how the fire spread," said Potphode. Several types of equipment were damaged in the blaze, he said. "We have started the probe. Our scope of the investigation is to check how the fire broke out," said Prashant Ranpise, PMC's fire department head. A team of forensic experts reached the spot and conducting their probe, said another official.
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