KOCHI : Two houses were destroyed and 327 houses damaged partially in the firecracker blast that rocked Choorakkad in Tripunithura last Monday, claiming the lives of two persons and injuring dozens of others.
The explosion occurred while boxes containing firecrackers—brought for the festival at Puthiyakavu Devi temple located just three kilometres away—were being unloaded from a vehicle.
The final picture of the extent of damage was revealed after the engineering wing of the Tripunithura municipality prepared the damage assessment report. It is set to be submitted to the district collector, who had ordered a probe into the incident.
“Out of the 329 damaged buildings, more than six have suffered nearly 60% damage. Since it’s not an earthquake, the buildings don’t have any structural damage. Whereas the damage suffered by 321 buildings is less than 20%. However, the two buildings adjacent to the accident site have been completely destroyed,” said Tripunithura municipality assistant executive engineer Omprakash B.
He said only the damage to buildings have currently been assessed. The losses resulting from damage to household items will be more than double that of buildings, the engineer said.
“In the impact of the firecracker blast, several household items including fridge, TV and AC, were completely damaged. Even cars and two-wheelers suffered damage. The collector has entrusted the tahsildars to assess the damage to the household items. Once it is completed, we will get the total picture of the damage,” Omprakash added.
The vehicle that transported the firecrackers from Palakkad and a car parked near the storage unit were gutted in the blast. Several people in the locality felt uneasy, and a few elderly people experienced hearing issues after the blast.
So far, nine people have been taken into custody in connection with the case. Of these, five persons are associated with the Thekkumpuram Karayogam while four persons allegedly provided hideouts for the accused. All were picked up from Munnar by the Hill Palace police and brought to Tripunithura.
Their interrogation is under way, and the arrests will be recorded soon.
According to the FIR lodged by the Hill Palace police, devaswom president Sajeesh Kumar, secretary Rajesh, treasurer Sathyan and fireworks contractor Adarsh, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram, were arraigned as accused alongside several other identifiable persons.
Damage report
2 houses - adjacent to the accident site have been completely destroyed
6 houses - suffered nearly 60% damages
32 houses - suffered less than 20% damages