MUNDATHICODE: For more than three decades, Shaji Francis of Neelankavil House and family had lived barely 300m from the firecracker unit in Mundathicode, their lives unfolding without fear or foreboding. The rhythms of the neighbourhood were familiar – especially for the youngest member of the family, two-and-a-half-year-old Saira, who would eagerly wave at workers of the unit passing by. That quiet familiarity was violently ruptured on Tuesday.
Around 3.20pm, a massive explosion ripped through the firecracker unit, sending shockwaves across the locality. “When the sound came, it wasn’t like anything we had ever heard before,” said Steffy Dany, Shaji’s 29-year-old daughter, who had just come from her husband’s home in Kodakara to be part of the ‘Ambu perunnal’ at a nearby church. She stood inside the house, surrounded by shattered windowpanes and debris scattered across the floor.
“The whole house kept shaking again and again as the blasts continued.”
A dyna cracker had landed on the first-floor balcony and exploded, ripping through the structure. The blast damaged the balcony, an adjacent room and a bathroom, while cracks appeared across the concrete roof. “We ran for our lives,” Steffy said.
“Our mother and another relative suffered burns as pieces of crackers rained down from the sky. The explosions kept coming for nearly 20 minutes. We knew something had gone wrong at the unit, but we never imagined it would be of this magnitude.”
The impact extended far beyond a single household. At least 60 homes in the vicinity reported shattered window panes, while several others suffered structural damage.