{"id":24498,"date":"2016-04-10T04:47:01","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T04:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/massive-fire-in-crowded-india-temple-kills-scores\/"},"modified":"2016-04-10T04:46:47","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T04:46:47","slug":"massive-fire-in-crowded-india-temple-kills-scores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/massive-fire-in-crowded-india-temple-kills-scores\/","title":{"rendered":"Massive fire in crowded India temple kills scores"},"content":{"rendered":"

{At least 100 killed and more than 200 injured at temple when fire engulfed packed building, officials say.}<\/p>\n

A massive fire has swept through a temple in India during a fireworks display, killing at least 100 people and injuring at least 200 others.<\/p>\n

The fire broke out on Sunday morning, officials said, when a spark from the show ignited a separate pile of fireworks that was being stored at the Puttingal temple complex in the coastal town of Paravur in Kerala state.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people were packed into the temple when an explosion was heard at about 3am local time. The blaze then spread quickly through the building, trapping people inside.<\/p>\n

Local TV channels showed footage of huge clouds of white smoke billowing from the temple, as fireworks continued to explode in the night sky.<\/p>\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Divya Gopalan, reporting from Delhi, said daily celebrations were being held in the country to mark a Hindu festival.<\/p>\n

“Some of the celebrations take place without the authorities\u2019 permission and without taking into consideration safety measures, which is what happened [on Sunday],” she said.<\/p>\n

The fire came as Kerala – governed by the Congress party, which is in opposition at a national level – prepares to head to the polls in one of five state elections being held in India this month and next.<\/p>\n

“The site has become a campaigning hotspot for many of the politicians who arrived at the scene of the fire,” Gopalan said.<\/p>\n

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, said on Twitter that he was on his way to the site of the fire.<\/p>\n

{{Concrete hurled }} <\/p>\n

Modi annnounced 200,000 rupees (about $3,000) in compensation for the families of those killed and 50,000 rupees for those injured.<\/p>\n

Rescuers on Sunday morning were sifting through the wreckage looking for survivors, while diggers cleared the debris and ambulances ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.<\/p>\n

The chief doctor at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College in the state capital said some of those pouring into the hospital had suffered serious injuries “and many would require amputation” of limbs.<\/p>\n

“Many have sustained burns of over 50 percent and the condition of some of them is quite serious,” D. Mohandas told the Hindu newspaper.<\/p>\n

Navy spokesman D.K Sharma said the helicopters would transport the injured to Thiruvananthapuram and also to the city of Kochi where the navy operates a hospital, with some of the injured currently being treated at small local medical centres.<\/p>\n

Every year, the temple holds a competitive fireworks display, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honouring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.<\/p>\n

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples and during religious occasions, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{At least 100 killed and more than 200 injured at temple when fire engulfed packed building, officials say.} A massive fire has swept through a temple in India during a fireworks display, killing at least 100 people and injuring at least 200 others. The fire broke out on Sunday morning, officials said, when a spark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24498"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24498"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}