Fire broke out at Serum Institute of India's under-construction plant in Pune, 5 died

Massive fire broke out at a vaccine manufacturing unit which was still under construction at the Serum Institute of India's facilities in Hadapsar, Pune on Thursday afternoon. Thick plumes of smoke billowing from the building on the company's sprawling site can be seen in footages.

A sizeable number of firefighting vehicles from the Pune fire brigade's Hadapsar fire station rushed to the site for bring the blaze under control. Police and other authorities too reached the spot. The cause of the fire has not been identified. The fire was later brought under control, but the city's mayor confirmed that 5 people had died. A second fire also broke out at the vaccine-maker's facility in Pune hours after the massive blaze.

Serum Institute's CEO, Adar Poonawalla said there would be no impact on the production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, known locally as Covishield, due to multiple production buildings that had been kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies.

He also said that it is the Rotavirus manufacturing facility at the plant which has caught the fire. The fire will disrupt the rotavirus vaccine supply by about 30% to 40%. Rotaviruses are the most common cause of diarrhoeal disease among infants and young children.

He also assured compensation of ₹25 lakhs to families of the deceased ones, in addition to mandated amount as per the norms.

Source: livemint.com, timesofindia.com, bbc.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma