Firecracker factory fire in India kills 5 workers, 12 hurt

PATNA, India – A big explosion ignited a fire at an illegal firecracker factory in an eastern Indian town, killing at least five workers and injuring another 12, police said Friday.

Police officer Sudhir Kumar Porika said the injured have been hospitalized, five of them in critical condition.

The dead included three children of the factory operator, who was running it without a license in a rented home in Biharsharif, a town 70 kilometres (45 miles) southeast of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.

The cause of the explosion around midnight Thursday is being investigated. Its impact damaged four nearby buildings as well, Porika said.

India has a huge demand for firecrackers, which are used in religious festivals and weddings.

There are fatal accidents nearly every year in India as people work in makeshift factories in the absence of proper safety standards.

In June last year, 23 workers were killed when a blast occurred while they were producing firecrackers in a village in Madhya Pradesh state.