An unexpected blast in a firecracker storehouse located in Songiri area shook the natives in Bikaner district. Yesterday morning, at about 9:30 am, the warehouse based in a residential locality under Naya Shahar police station caught fire, all of a sudden. The casualties amounted to five, including a woman, and several others were critically injured. The victims who died in Bikaner fire tragedy were identified as Zehran, Balraj, Vijay, Safel, and Mohammad Hafeez.
The police investigation revealed that Mr. Kailash Vyas, the owner of the burnt repository didn’t have a license to store crackers in the building. In short, the nonchalant attitude of Mr. Vyas resulted in a public loss.
The Explosion in Bikaner Warehouse Spread to the Neighboring Areas…
An officer informed us about the events following the explosion. The first explosion shattered the entire building, which collapsed like a house of cards. Sparks emitting from burnt crackers escaped the building. Soon, the flames spread to the nearby buildings. Having suffered the brunt of the explosion, one of the buildings in the neighborhood dropped dead on the ground.
Someone informed the police that called upon SDRF (State Disaster Relief Force) for help. Meanwhile, the local onlookers sprung to action. They rescued the injured trapped under the warehouse debris and rushed them to the hospital. Due to restricted space in Songiri area, the fire fighting vehicles and ambulances took several hours to reach the scene. Seeing no way out, the neighbors dragged out the victims from the building. They carried the injured on their shoulders to ambulances parked outside the narrow alleys.
The fire-extinguishing vehicles couldn’t move closer to the building. Therefore, the firefighters used waterpipes to extinguish the flames. After putting in relentless efforts for a long time, the fire was put out by 11:30 am. Despite elaborate fire-extinguishing strategies, a few crackers continued to burn.
The injured received treatment at various hospitals in Bikaner. All this while, the SDRF, and Rajasthan police teams evacuated nearby houses and cut the power supply to prevent sparking in electric cables. The police are yet to identify four victims of this tragedy. They suspect the victims to be workers at the warehouse. The rescue teams cleared the debris to save more people who were trapped underneath the building.
When asked about the incident, Mr. Anil Gupta (Bikaner District Collector) told the media that the owner didn’t have permission to store explosives in the building.
Earlier, it was the WTP mall and Bharatpur marriage hall tragedies that killed the labors and now, this Bikaner warehouse explosion, which resulted in heavy casualties. The government needs to implement strict rules to prevent such happenings in future. It’s necessary to penalize the offenders to discourage carelessness on the management’s part.
