Attibele fire tragedy: ‘Victims were students’, says CM Siddaramaiah

Attibele fire tragedy: While the Karnataka government announced compensation and assured an action plan, opposition leaders alleged that rules were flouted.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said most of the victims in the tragic Attibele fire were students who were trying to support their education. They were natives of Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri districts, in neighbouring state Tamil Nadu, he said.

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar visited the site where a firecracker shop-cum-godown caught fire at Attibele in Bengaluru Rural district. (PTI)

As many as 14 were killed when a cracker go-down caught fire in Attibele, a border town in Bengaluru urban district. While 12 of the victims died on the spot, two others succumbed during treatment.

"Most of those who died were students who worked during the holidays to earn money for their studies. Barring the manager, none was a permanent employee," the chief minister told media after a site inspection.

READ | Attibele cracker shop fire mishap case will be handed over to CID, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

Deputy CM DK Shivakumar also spoke out on the tragedy, calling it a “grave incident” and saying that the government will come up with an action plan.

"It is a grave incident. We are going to come up with a plan of action, we have to take within two to three days. We have already announced ₹5 lakhs for those who died, and hospital expenditures will be taken care of," he told reporters.

READ | Karnataka: ₹5 lakh compensation announced for kin of deceased in fire incident at Attibele

The incident also garnered a response from opposition leaders, with former Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai saying the rules over management of crackers were flouted.

"The Attibele incident has been a big tragedy and more such incidents would happen in case the government fails to open its eyes. As many as 14 persons have lost their lives in this gory incident. The government must distribute the compensation to the families of the deceased persons, and arrange for the treatment of the survivors," Bommai told news agency ANI.

Bommai said storage of such a large quantity of crackers was not permitted under law and this had been the second cracker explosion event in the last one and a half months. "In Haveri, four persons were killed and in Attibele, 14 persons have lost their lives. This clearly shows that the rules were flouted," Bommai added.