In Kerala, a fireworks tragedy and questions about safety

There is a grim familiarity to the series of blasts that ripped through a fireworks assembly unit in Thrissur, Kerala, where workers were preparing for Thrissur Pooram, a temple festival famed for its pyrotechnic display. The explosions have resulted in the death of 14 people and left several injured. The cause of the accident is being investigated — the state government has ordered a judicial inquiry, in addition to the magisterial probe ordered by the district collector. Yet, the frequency of accidents involving fireworks across the country in the past few years alone — including Sunday’s blast in a fireworks unit in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar and the explosion at a factory in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada in February — point not to a series of individual tragedies, but a deeper issue that demands scrutiny.

The last major accident involving fireworks in Kerala was in April 2016, when a pyrotechnic display at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam went awry, killing 111 people and injuring over 300. Besides the use of illegal fireworks and improper storage, a probe ordered at the time pointed to several administrative lapses, including insufficient oversight in granting licences for the use and display of fireworks. Afterwards, recommendations about licensing, use and storage were also put forward. A decade on, another major tragedy raises uncomfortable questions.

The hazardous nature of work in the fireworks industry, where the slightest neglect can lead to disaster, calls for strict monitoring of safety standards at every stage, from the manufacturing and handling of chemicals to storage. Yet, the reality points to a wider culture of neglect. For example, the Virudhunagar tragedy, which resulted in the death of 23 people, was one of two such incidents in the district in April alone. Probes into other recent accidents here have pointed to repeated safety violations. Regulations to address these already exist, from mandatory licensing and strict guidelines for factory locations to safety rules for workers, including the number of people allowed per unit and restriction of work hours to daytime. But what is needed is to identify the gaps at each level in the chain — from the factory to the consumer — and ensure rigorous enforcement of the existing regulations.