Serum Institute of India: Blaze on the premises of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer kills 5 people

Serum Institute of India: Blaze on the premises of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer kills 5 people

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The fire at the Serum Institute of India (SII) in the western city of Pune was brought under control on Thursday, although the cause is still under investigation, according to Murlidhar Mohol, the city’s mayor.

Four people were rescued from the six-story building, but five others died, Mohol said. They would have been construction workers, as the building was still under construction at the time of the fire.

Videos and images showed black smoke coming from the building of the company complex. Fifteen units of the municipal corporation and the fire department worked to put out the fire, Mohol said.

Preliminary investigations suggest that “during the construction of the building, some welding work may have caused the fire,” he added.

Pune fire brigade chief Prashant Ranpise said on Friday that the fire started on the second floor. While firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, the fire reigned elsewhere. The second fire was extinguished at 4:15 pm local time by 50 firefighters and personnel. Ranpise said he is still investigating the cause of the fire.

“We learned that unfortunately there was some loss of life in the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” tweeted SII CEO Adar Poonawalla on Thursday.

SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is partnering with Oxford University and AstraZeneca to produce the Covishield vaccine. In December, the company said it was producing 50 to 60 million doses of Covishield per month, with production to be increased to 100 million doses in January or February.
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A family business started by Poonawalla’s father 50 years ago to bring cheaper vaccines to the masses, the Serum Institute of India aims to produce hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccines not only for India, but also for other developing countries .

In a tweet, Poonawalla said that although “some floors were destroyed”, the production of the Covishield vaccine would not be affected.

“I would like to assure all governments and the public that there would be no loss of production from COVISHIELD due to several production buildings that I kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies,” he said.

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, president and managing director of SII, said in a statement that the fire started in a facility that was under constriction in the Special Economic Zone of Manjri. He said it was an “extremely sad day” and that the company would offer INR 2.5 million ($ 34,000) to each of the victims’ families.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences on Thursday: “Anguished at the loss of life due to an unfortunate fire … In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that injured recover at the earliest. “

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