Hyderabad - India
22 dead in two separate blazes

 -- At least 22 people were killed and 18 injured in two separate blazes in southern India.   In one incident, 12 people suffocated to death in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after a firecracker shop caught fire.

 

-- The fire, caused by an electric short-circuit, broke out before dawn.  It soon engulfed the shop located in the basement of a multi-storeyed building in the crowded Begum Bazar area of Hyderabad.

 The victims were guests staying at a hotel on the top floor of the building.   Most were sleeping at the time of the accident and died of suffocation.   "We were jolted out of our sleep by loud explosion-like sounds. The electricity was off and it was completely dark."    "If the local people had not helped us out we would have surely died."

Tamil Nadu -- India.
10 people killed - Eight injured

-- 10 people were killed and eight injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in Villupuram district.   The workers, who were making fireworks  were trapped when the roof collapsed.

  -- In an incident in Tamil Nadu state in Viluppuram district, a huge explosion at a fireworks factory killed 10 workers and injured eight others, four of them critically. The dead included six women working at the factory, which was producing firecrackers for the next month's Hindu festival of lights, Diwali. 

-- "Ten people were killed instantaneously in a huge explosion at a cracker manufacturing unit near Velupuram," a senior police official said. He said that four of the injured were in critical condition at a local hospital. "We are investigating the cause of the accident."  Accidents are common at cramped fireworks factories which operate across rural India. Many lack basic safety facilities and are poorly managed.

 

Haidergarh village -- India
Seven killed in explosion
at illegal cracker factory

2004 -- At least seven people were killed and several dozen others injured in a blast at an illegal fireworks factory in Haidergarh village in Uttar Pradesh late on Thursday.

The factory was operating from a small ramshackle building and had tonnes of explosives stacked in cupboards and drawers, close to the sleeping quarters of the workers. The men had been working overtime to meet the huge demand for next month's Hindu festival of lights, Diwali, celebrated by bursting crackers.

Initial reports say that one of them could have left a partially- burnt bidi or local cigaratte which triggered the explosions.

"We came home to have our food after the Namaz (holy prayers) and then there was a loud noise and we saw that there was a huge fire. The roof of the house had collapsed and the men were trapped inside. Everybody was trying to rescue the men but at least four had died instantly," an eyewitness, said on Friday.

Fire tragedies and such blasts are common at cramped fireworks factory across India, most of which lack basic safety measures, employ children despite a ban on child labour and are poorly managed.

 

Ta’ Kandja
Man Dies In Fireworks Explosion

2003 -- A man died in an explosion which destroyed a small illegal fireworks factory at Ta’ Kandja, between Imqabba and Siggiewi.   Two explosions were heard in the area on Thursday at around 1.30pm. A large quantity of smoke covered the quarry where the factory was situated and the area around it.   The Police, the Civil Protection Department and the Armed Forces arrived on the spot soon after together with a number of ambulances.   A search was immediately launched and about one hour later the body of  a 50-year old man was recovered from the quarry.   It is suspected that the man, who is from Birkirkara, was hit by pieces of material as a result of the tremendous explosion.    People working in a nearby quarry said that the explosion was so strong that the blast even demolished part of a small room at their working place.

India
Explosion in fireworks factory kills 10

2004 -- An explosion at a fireworks factory in southern India on Thursday killed at least 10 workers, a news report said.

Another 10 people were injured in the blast in Srikakulam, a town in Andhra Pradesh state, Press Trust of India news agency quoted police as saying. Details were not immediately available.

India

-- Fireworks exploded as they were being loaded onto a truck for a Hindu festival, killing at least 14 people and injuring 50 in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.