THRISSUR : Velayudhan, 60, is yet to accept the reality of the disaster and spends time staring blankly into the distance. It was a tea break that saved him from being burnt to ashes in the huge blast that ripped through a firecracker-manufacturing unit in Mundathicode on Tuesday.
“I have been working with Satheesan (the fireworks licensee of Thiruvambady devaswom) and his father for more than four decades. On Tuesday, I had already informed Satheesan that I won’t be working after 3pm, so as to attend the annual feast in a church nearby. By 2.30pm, I came out of the unit for a tea beak, and before long, heard a loud noise,” Velayudhan told TNIE, choking on his words.
Velayudhan, who lives within 400 metres of the firecracker-making unit, said he could not understand what had happened as everything exploded together. “I don’t know what went wrong. All the workers here were like family to me... I can’t even look at the site now,” he said, standing at a distance from the blast site.
He was engaged in coating the cotton wick (thiri) with explosive powder on the day. Considered an expert in the field, Velayudhan usually works on all steps of firecracker-making.