Serum Institute of India: Blaze at the world’s largest vaccine maker’s facility 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, said Murlidhar Mohol, the city’s mayor.

Four people were rescued from the six-story building, but five others died, Mohol said. They are believed to 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 onto the business complex. Fifteen units from the municipal company and the fire department worked to put out the blaze, Mohol said.

Preliminary research suggests that “during the construction of the building, some welding could have led to the fire,” he added.

Pune’s fire chief Prashant Ranpise said on Friday that the fire started on the second floor. While firefighters worked to put out the flames, the blaze raged elsewhere. The second fire was extinguished at 4.15 pm local time by 50 firefighters and personnel. Ranpise said they are still investigating the cause of the fire.

“We have learned that unfortunately a number of human lives were lost in the incident. We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest condolences to the relatives of the deceased,” tweeted SII CEO Adar Poonawalla Thursday.

SII, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, has partnered 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, and production would scale up to 100 million doses in January or February.
India embarks on one of the world's most ambitious post-emergency vaccine rollouts

The Serum Institute of India, a family-owned company founded 50 years ago by Poonawalla’s father to bring cheaper vaccines to the masses, aims to produce hundreds of millions of coronavirus vaccines for not only India, but other developing countries as well.

In a tweet, Poonawalla said that production of the Covishield vaccine would not be affected, despite it having “destroyed a few floors.”

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

Cyrus S. Poonawalla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SII, said in a statement that the fire broke out at a facility that was under pressure in the Special Economic Zone in Manjri. He said it was an “extremely sad day” and that the company would donate INR 2.5 million ($ 34,000) to each of the victims’ families.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his condolences on Thursday: “Haunted by the loss of lives as a result of an unfortunate fire … In this sad hour, my thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives. I pray that the injured recover. at The Earliest. “

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