Balugaon: Two persons, including a woman, sustained serious injuries in an explosion at an illegal cracker factory at Bhagabatipatna village under this police limits in Ganjam district Friday.
The injured were widow Jayanti Baliarsingh (55) and her relative Sadhu Sahu (65). Interestingly, the cracker factory was located just 10 metres away from the local police station while the police remained ignorant of the blast.
Located at the foot of Mamubhanaja hills, the village is close to Balugaon police station. With the help of the police station boundary, the widow Jayanti had built a small thatched hut.
Earlier, her husband used to make crackers in the hut. After his death, Jayanti, with the help of her relative Sahu, continued the job. Sources said, the incident occurred while the two as usual were making the crackers.
Due to carelessness, a cracker went off triggering an explosion in the house. Before the locals could understand, the blast was followed by 10 continuous explosions in the house. The roof of the hut was blown off.
In fear, locals did not go near the explosion area. Later, fire brigade personnel doused the flames and rescued the two buried under the wreckage with critical burn injuries. The two were first admitted to Balugaon Government Hospital and then shifted to a hospital in Bhubaneswar, it is learnt.
Khurda SP Dipti Ranjan Ray, Balugaon SDPO Subash Chandra Panda and IIC Sanjay Pattnaik reached the village and launched a probe. The police team then seized 70 ‘bomb crackers’ along with two sacks of other crackers. PNN
