THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The owner of a cracker manufacturing unit, who was seriously injured in a blast that ripped through his cracker shop at Nanniyode in Palode police station limits on Wednesday, died while under treatment. Shibu, 48, had sustained more than 70% burn and was under treatment at the Medical College Hospital.
The police said ingredients used for making crackers have been recovered from the spot suggesting they were stored in the shop that had a license only to sell crackers. The explosion took place at the shop in Alampara around 10.30 am. Shibu was inside the shop at the time of the blast.
“We have spotted traces of Sulphur, a raw material used in crackers, from the shop. It suggests that Shibu might have kept the ingredients among the finished crackers and it went off due to reasons unknown. We hope to get a clear idea of what went wrong once the forensic examination results are out,” said a police source.
Shibu owned a licensed cracker manufacturing unit as well, which is located 3 km away from the place where the blast occurred. It is also suspected that the mishap could have happened while mixing the explosives to prepare crackers. The license of the shop was in the name of Shibu’s wife. According to the police, Alampara houses over 30 cracker manufacturing units, which are legally operating with valid licences. These units provide crackers to dealers across the district.
In the wake of the incident, police have started examining the units to check whether they were sticking to the protocols. Nanniyode had witnessed a high-intensity explosion in 2015, which resulted in the death of two people. Wednesday’s blast was also a high-intensity one as the sound of the explosion was heard several kilometres away.