When tremors suddenly struck Vetlapalem village in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada district on Saturday afternoon, locals were initially unsure what was happening.
“We thought it was an earthquake,” resident Virago said. “Our houses shook and the walls cracked. Some electrical appliances caught fire.”
Another resident said that the force of the tremors shattered the windows of her house. “I thought it was a cylinder explosion from next door,” she said.
Virago said it took at least half an hour before villagers realized that powerful explosions had repeatedly rocked the nearby Suryasri Fireworks Centre. He added: “Thick smoke covered the area while repeated explosions echoed for several minutes. Only then did we realize that it was coming from the bomb disposal unit located about two kilometers from our location.”
Local residents said the initial explosion was heard about five kilometers from the site. Officials said the impact damaged several houses in the village and the roof of a private school in a nearby village.
A witness to the accident said that storage barrels filled with chemicals inside the factory exploded and were thrown into nearby fields. He said: “The chemical powder used to make firecrackers was stored in barrels. They exploded and were thrown into the fields. This has never happened here. We are seeing this for the first time.”
The charred bodies of many victims were also dismembered and thrown into the fields. D Naveen, a local Telugu Desam Party leader who rushed to the scene to supervise rescue operations, described the scene. He added: “The body parts are scattered, a head in one place and a torso in another. We cannot identify our families.”
A 25-year-old woman, who lost her mother, was in a state of shock and disbelief.
She said: “My mother has been working in the unit for the past year. We do not know exactly what happened. We were at home. As soon as we learned of the explosion, we came here quickly.”
She said her mother called her shortly before she returned to work. “She told me she had finished her lunch and was going back to work,” she said.
Hours before 40-year-old Nokila Devi from Kathimuru was confirmed dead in the blasts, her daughter-in-law spoke to reporters near the site. “We don’t know where she is,” she said. “The police said they couldn’t trace her.”
A 40-year-old woman who lost her son remembered his last words.
“He called me during lunch hour. He said he would go back to work at the factory and would call me in the evening. That was the last call. His phone is off now,” she said, crying inconsolably.
Many villagers stood in front of their damaged homes and chanted one sentence. “This has never happened here.”
