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'No angle ruled out yet': What we know so far on Serum Institute fire
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed grief over the fire incident.
A day after two fire incidents broke out at Serum Institute of India's Pune campus, CEO Adar Poonawalla on Friday said allayed concerns regarding the production of Covishield vaccine and said Covishield production or its supply will not be hit. But the company reported a huge financial loss owing to the fire incidents and the manufacturing and storage of Rotavirus and BCG vaccine will be hit.
Here's what we know about the fire incidents so far:
> A major fire broke out at an under-construction building in Manjari complex between 1.45pm and 2.15pm on Thursday. Five construction workers died. They have been identified as Bipin Saroj and Rama Shankar from Uttar Pradesh, Sushil Kumar Pandey from Bihar, and Mahendra Ingle and Pratik Pashte, both from Pune.
> Another fire broke out hours later in the evening. There was no casualty of the second fire incident.
> It took almost three hours to bring down the first fire under control.
Damage in fire worth 1K crore, Covid vaccine supply not to be impacted: SII CEO
> Serum Institute has announced a compensation of ₹25 lakh to the families of each worker who died in the incident.
> Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed sadness over the fire incident.
> The first fire seems to have sparked from electric works going on at the under-construction building.
> Maharashtra government has ordered a probe into the fire incident. The authorities are waiting for the investigating report before commenting on whether there was any sabotage. Police said no angle including carelessness, violation of industry guideline, sabotage, has been ruled out yet.
> The Manjari facility is part of the Special Economic Zone which is three kilometre from SII's main plant in Hadapsar where Covishield is being manufactured.
> The Manjari facility is being built as part of the Serum Institute's expansion plan. There was no vaccine production going on at the building.
> The company will lose in the tune of ₹1,000 crore.
> Manufacturing and storage of Rotavirus, BCG vaccine will be hit, the company has said.
