As a hunt was launched to nab the factory owner, a top police official said several violations of safety norms like overcrowding, overstocking and wrong mixing of chemicals, had been found, leading to one of the worst mishaps yesterday in Sivakasi, hub of the country's cracker industry.
Four persons who had taken the Omshakthi fireworks factory complex, the scene of the tragedy, on lease, its foreman and two others entrusted with managing the unit had been arrested, SP Najmal Hoda told reporters here.
Police is yet to trace the owner of the factory, Murugesan and ten teams had been formed to nab him.
Prompted by the incident, Hoda said all factories would be inspected for violations by various departments.
After a meeting of senior ministers to discuss steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced a magisterial probe into the fire in which the toll rose to 39 with three more succumbing to burns.
A blame-game began with Rangaswamy, an official of the Controller of Explosives, saying licences of the factory, valid up to 2014, were suspended three months ago due to 40 different types of violations.
However, Revenue official Rajagopal said they had not received the communication in this regard from the state controller of explosives. "Had I known about the communication, I would have acted and sealed the factory," he said, exposing the communication gap in official circles.
DGP (Fire and Rescue operations) Bholanath, who visited the factory, blamed "human error" for the fire.
Speaking to reporters, he said cracker materials should be handled before 10AM as per the rules because the heat in the atmosphere would be mild. Cracker chemicals were handled in the noon when the heat was extreme,leading to friction and the accident,he said. (MORE)
