Emergency meeting to ensure safe Pooram

Thrissur: An emergency meeting to discuss the safety measures to be put in place for conducting fireworks for Thrissur Pooram will be held at 3 pm on Monday here.

District collector V. Ratheesan rang up the top functionaries of both Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi devaswoms on Sunday to discuss the matter, in the wake of the worst firework tragedy in Kollam that took scores of lives.

Police commissioner K. G. Simon will also be part of this emergency meeting.
The two are of the opinion that during Thrissur pooram, both the officials of Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) and district collector should inspect the firework grounds before fireworks, and all safety measures are followed during fireworks.

“If they want us to implement more safety measures, we are ready to do so, and we hope that the fireworks for pooram will be conducted without any issues. Both have separate magazines of concrete cells where the items used for fireworks are kept and an accident like that in Kollam will not happen here,” Thiruvambadi Devaswom president M. Madhavankutty told DC.

The first major incident during Thrissur pooram was in 1978 in which the launching barrel made of bamboo tilted and a huge cracker fell on the spectators watching the fireworks at CMS school near the Thekkinkkad Maidan were the event is held. At least eight persons died in the incident.

Another major incident was in 2006 an unauthorised unit making fireworks for Paramekkavu devaswom at Padukkad exploded killing seven workers.