India woke up to the terrible tragedy at Puttingal temple in Paravur at Kollam, Kerala, on Sunday morning. A huge fire broke out following an explosion during the fireworks display at the temple in the wee hours of Sunday. At least 102 people have been declared dead so far, and several hundreds have been admitted to hospitals in Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram. - See more at: http://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kerala-temple-tragedy-what-exactly-happened-paravur-crystal-clear-explanation-41405#sthash.IvJJwIHa.dpuf t has been established beyond doubt now that the temple authorities did not have the required permission to conduct the fireworks display. Read our story, with documents, here.
So what exactly happened? Here is a crystal clear explanation.
Every year, during Meenabharani celebrations, the Puttingal Temple in Paravur provides a visual treat for the devotees: a massive fireworks display. This is an old tradition. Thousands of people assemble at the temple grounds to witness the spectacle.
Here’s how the fireworks look, this is how huge they are.
But it is not just a fireworks display, it is also a competition. Judges would witness the fireworks and declare a winner each year.
At the temple, every year, there is a fireworks face-off. Two sets of people form groups and try to outdo each other in the fireworks. The competition is to see whose fireworks are more grand, the explosions louder and the sights magnificent.
According to sources in Kollam, till Saturday afternoon, there was no clarity over whether the fireworks competition will happen since permission had been denied.
And then word spread that the event will go on, but not a competition. A reporter with Asianet, also a resident of the village, Lallu, said, “The fireworks started around 11 50PM on Saturday, but there was no competition.”
The Superintendent of Police, Kollam told the media that despite the ADM's refusal, the temple committee informed the police that they had sought "oral permission". The SP said that the festival went on in spite of the police asking them not to. The Kerala government has promised an investigation to determine the cause of the incident.
Sometime between 3AM and 3 30AM, just few minutes before the fireworks display was to end, one of the fireworks, called “amittu”, which was supposed to explode in the air and fizzle out, instead fell on the ground, and the sparks flew around causing a fire.
This fire then spread to 12 huge “amittus” which were kept nearby, on the shed made of concrete.
When those 12 fireworks caught fire, there was a huge explosion, which could be heard hundreds of meters away.
As soon as the explosion happened, people panicked and did not know what to do.
Even as people started trying to control the fire and rescue the injured, the shed on which the explosives were kept collapsed.
This collapse of concrete on people after the explosion, worsened the tragedy.
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Sitharam Yechury met the injured and the families of the deceased and said that the state government should provide employment to the injured and the kin of the deceased.
"Monetary compensation is not enough. The state government should announce employment for the kin of victims so that they have some future," Yechury told reporters after meeting the victims.
"The guilty should be punished," he added. "The Prime Minister was here. I chose not to come here yesterday because the priority of the administration should be to provide relief. When that was over, I decided to come here," he said.
Yechury also said that this disaster "definitely merits to be considered a national calamity."
Families struggle to find their loved ones
After scouring six hospitals and three morgues, NP Anoop is no closer to finding his father who was caught in a massive blast and fire at an Indian temple that claimed more than 100 lives.
Like thousands of others, his father had gone on Saturday night to the Hindu temple in southern Kerala state, renowned for its beaches and tranquil backwaters, to see the annual fireworks display.
But in the chaotic hours after the explosion that ripped through the Puttingal Devi complex, the increasingly desperate 32-year-old could find no trace of his father, Vishwanathan, and feared the worst.
"I don't know if he is alive or dead. All I want is to see him, we are ready for the worst but this search is painful," he told AFP after questioning ICU staff at a medical college hospital in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.
"My father had gone to the festival with his friend. We were able to find the body of his friend but have yet to get any information on my father," the weary-looking Anoop said, before heading off to yet another hospital.
At hospitals, morgues and police stations, families are involved in a heartwrenching search for loved ones feared swept up in the blast that tore apart concrete buildings.
But the task is being made more difficult by the fact that some of the more than 100 people killed are unrecognisable
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