A major fire at one of the containers at a matchbox factory claimed the lives of four women here on Tuesday.
The four women, at Thilaka Rathinam match works, located at Vadaku Thittankulam village near Kovilpatti, were transferring matchbox bundles into a container lorry from a mini lorry which had brought the sticks into the factory. The matchboxes were packed in brown sacks.
When the brown sacks were thrown into the container, matches at one of the sack caught fire due to friction and the fire soon engulfed the whole truck. It spread rapidly to the mini lorry and damaged the whole vehicle.
The women who were transferring the matchbox bundles were stuck inside the container lorry which caught fire and could not come out. All four died on the spot. Other workers took shelter in safer places. Muthulakshmi, a worker at the factory, said when she came out to see what happened, the container lorry was already half burnt.
Subbulakshmi(54) and Uma (18), both from Vadaku Thittankulam, Suganthi (23) from VOC Nagar, Kovilpatti and Banumathi (48) from Urulaikudi were the four women who had died in the fire accident.
