Five dead in Serum Institute fire that broke out at Manjri plant, Covishield facility safe

By Varsha Torgalkar

@the_news_21

Pune:

Five people including one woman are reported to be dead in a major fire that broke out at one of the buildings of Serum Institute of India (SII) in Manjri in Pune on Thursday afternoon. The fire broke out at a under construction site. The facility where the Covishield vaccine for Covid19 is being manufactured is safe. Fire would not affect production of the Covishield, officials clarified.

“Ten fire tenders and water tankers were sent to the spot after we received call from SII that fire broke out at its Manjri campus at 2.30. We have evacuated workers who were trapped at under construction site,” said Prashant Ranpise, chief Fire Brigade, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). One team of National Disaster Response Force has been moved to SII where fire broke out.

Amitabh Gupta, Police Commissioner, Pune said, “The fire broke out at 4^thand 5^th floor of an under construction site where vaccine production was to begin in a months’ time.”

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Adar Poonawala, CEO and owner of SII, tweeted “Thank you every one for your concern and prayers. So far the most important thing is there have been no lives lost or major injuries due to fire despite a few floors being destroyed. He also assured that there would be no loss of Covishield production due to multiple production buildings kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at SII”. He had tweeted this before deaths were reported.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray taking cognizance of the fire at SII ordered the authorities to take measures at controlling fires. He took information about the fire from divisional commissioner and Pune Municipal commissioner and also asked them to implement emergency measures if needed. He expressed satisfaction that fire brigade reached the spot on time and for its efforts to douse fire.

Meanwhile Ajit Pawar, deputy chief minister of Maharashtra and the guardian minister of Pune informed that fire incident would be investigated. He said, “There is concern about safety of SII at national and international level. And the incident would be investigated. I am told that Covishield manufacturing plant is safe. Efforts are being made to douse the fire.

SII has contract with AstraZeneca and Oxford University to produce Covid19 vaccine Covishield. SII would provide 100 million doses of the vaccine to India and other low and middle income countries.