Five died in Serum Institute of India’s Pune campus : Production of Covishield safe

 Five laborer's were charred to death in a fire that broke out in the fifth floor of a building under construction of vaccine manufacturing major Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune’s Manjari area on Thursday afternoon.

The five deceased were contractual labourers- two hailing from Uttar Pradesh, two from Pune district and one from Bihar. According to sources, four others were evacuated from the building when the first blaze, which was apparently caused by an electrical fault, erupted around 2 p.m.

A second, relatively a minor blaze, occurred at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the same building. Both fires has been brought under control, said fire department authorities.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said the fire had not harmed SII’s ‘Covishield’ vaccine storage, which is sited at a distance from the blaze, in any way.

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, Chairman and Managing Director, SII, said the institute would offer a compensation of ₹25 lakh to each of the families of the deceased, in addition to the mandated amount as per the norms.

Today is an extremely sorrowful day for all of us at Serum Institute of India. Regrettably, there were losses of lives in the fire that broke out in our under- installation facility situated at the Special Economic Zone at Manjri. We are deeply saddened and offer our condolences to the families of the departed. In this regard, We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone for their concerns and prayers in these distressing times,” said Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, in a statement.

Mr. Adar Poonawalla tweeted: “We have just received some distressing updates; upon further investigation we have learnt that there has unfortunately been some loss of life at the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family members of the departed.”