THRISSUR: The death toll in Tuesday’s blast at a firecracker-manufacturing unit at Mundathicode in Thrissur rose to 14 after one of the five persons critically injured in the explosion succumbed to injuries at the Medical College Hospital (MCH) on Wednesday. Praveen of Pattambi in Palakkad is the deceased.
Meanwhile, a joint meeting of the Thiruvambady and Paramekkavu devaswoms decided to cancel the fireworks display and scale down Thrissur Pooram celebrations in the wake of the tragedy.
The government has ordered a judicial inquiry by Justice C N Ramachandran Nair into the explosion. The state cabinet that met in Thiruvananthapuram also announced Rs 14 lakh in immediate relief to the families of the deceased and recommended declaring the incident a ‘special disaster’.
At present, 12 people are under treatment at the MCH. Four of them are under critical care. The government said it will bear the treatment expenses of the injured persons for six months. Beyond that, expenses in empanelled private hospitals will be covered based on the recommendation of a medical board. Even after 24 hours, there is no clarity on the exact number of victims, with searches carried out at the blast site with the help of K9 Squad’s cadaver dogs recovering more body parts on Wednesday.
As of now, eight of the 14 deceased have been identified and their bodies released to relatives after postmortem, District Collector Sikha Surendran said. The unidentified body parts recovered from the site would be preserved at the MCH’s mortuary, she said.
“Three people are missing. We have collected the samples of their relatives. Results of the DNA testing and matching would be available in three to four days,” Sikha said.
She said four people, who escaped with minor injuries, sought treatment at other hospitals, after which two were discharged. “We are still updating the data about people who managed to escape and are contacting them for more information,” Sikha said.
The cabinet also approved compensation for damage caused during rescue operations, including demolition of compound walls and filling of paddy fields.
Collector to assess damage to houses near blast site
The actual costs will be reimbursed from the SDRF based on the district collector’s report.
Instructions have been issued to state executive committee of the state disaster management authority in order to formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) for burial of bodies and collection of samples for DNA matching.
The cabinet ratified the earlier sanction of Rs 50 lakh from the SDRF for immediate response activities and authorised the collector to utilise the amount for expenses related to rescue and relief operations.
The collector has also been tasked with urgently assessing damage to nearby houses and submitting a report to facilitate compensation through SDRF.
(With inputs from T’Puram)
The day after
Pattambi resident under critical care passes away at Thrissur MCH
Exact cause behind the blast remains unknown, says Thrissur District Collector Sikha Surendran. Forensic experts visit the site on Wednesday and collect samples
PESO officials also collect samples from the spot
Search continues, more body parts recovered
Ministers K Rajan, V N Vasavan and R Bindu, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, Union Minister Suresh Gopi and Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala visit blast site, meet injured persons
