Bawana Fire: Workers were making firecrackers, but believed they were 'packing colours'

The firecracker factory in Bawana where 17 people were killed in a massive fire on Saturday had kept workers in dark about their nature of work. Workers were told that they were packing colours in boxes and not gunpowder, some women who worked at the factory said. 

It was earlier reported the facility was only being used to store firecrackers but workers have rubbished such claims. 

According to many of the workers, they were given small boxes to pack gunpowder which was used to make firecrackers. They were, however, told that it was only colour. 

They felt burning sensation in their bodies due to working with the gunpowder as no precautions were taken, workers, many of them women, said. 

Ten women and seven men were killed while a man and woman were injured in the massive blaze at the factor in outer Delhi's Bawana industrial area on Saturday. One of the women who died in the fire was said to be pregnant.  

14 of the deceased had been identified -- Rohit, Sanjit, Sukhda, Khusna, Soni, Suraj, Ravi Kant, Baby Devi, Afshana, Sonam, Reeta, Madeena, Rajjo and supervisor Ajeet Ranjan till Sunday.

The bodies of two men and one woman were yet to be identified, the police said yesterday. 

The 49-year-old Manoj Jain, who was running the factory, has been arrested. The police are still probing the cause of the fire. 

A senior official of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation has said that the unit did not have a “working license.” 

According to the officials, the factory was functioning “illegally”, as no application seeking a license for the property was received since 2014 when an application was rejected for not having “complete formalities”.

The case was yesterday handed over to the Crime Branch of Delhi Police from the district police.