The massive fire which erupted at Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam has claimed more than 110 lives and injuring 380 persons. The fire began when a spark from a fireworks display ignited a separate batch of fireworks that had been stored in the temple in preparation for the Hindu new year festival of Vishu. In the impact of the explosion, the office building of the Travancore Devaswom Board near the storehouse was blown off. There is a district level ban on pyrotechnics at temples but these are held on the basis of temporary permits annually. Such permits are given on religious tradition grounds. It is time to curtail fire cracker activities in temple festivals.
Calamity in the midst of religious celebrations, that too in the early morning hours, just as dawn was about to break through to dispel the dark hours of the night. Ironically, precious lives have been lost and this time, spiritual and mental darkness has crept in to so many families. My sincere and deepest condolence to the bereaved and may the Almighty console the heart broken, heal the wounds and remove the scars brought about by this tragic incident. Appreciate the volunteers, army personnel, medical teams and all who unwaveringly and selflessly extended hands and hearts to mitigate the pain and sufferings without any hindrance. Though the lives lost cannot be brought back here and now, it should be a lesson not to play with and be callous with fire in any way and ascribe reasons for doing so. Instead of waiting for formal inquiry, those responsible for the sins of commission and omission own up to the fact and accept the responsibility and prevent such fireworks in the name of temple festivities. It is an unfortunate event in the history of Kerala. The Government should think about the burning of crackers in the large public areas. Especially in the temple functions, it should be banned at any cost. Tradition and culture are not above the Human life.
I would say that banning fire-works or elephants parade in festivals are not the remedy while certain precedent followed for generations are to be respected. These things are to be brought under strict protocol with compliance under existing laws. People of all ages and from all strata of the society are to be educated on the safety measures to be followed while festivals are being celebrated. School children can be roped in to do presentations and street dramas for creating awareness on safety initiative to be adhered to in celebrating festivals. The temples of South India are always enacting fireworks during their Pooram festivals without much thought to the people’s safety watching the entrancing display. Actually this display was in violation of the District Collector’s instructions. The police officials too were against this dangerous display. But the temple officials disobeyed and conducted the fireworks surreptitiously with the consensus of the devotees. So, this tragedy occurred with the loss of many lives and serious injuries to many people is a man made one. More care should be taken in future in the display of fireworks in crowded places as had occurred here in Kollam. The government has to be firm against such displays.
After the Sabarimala stampede incident the Government of Kerala had not passed strict strictures to avoid such serious mishaps. In the history of Kerala the temple festivals offer loopholes for stampede and fire accidents and it is time to learn from the tragedy. In Mumbai, the Shanmukhananda Fine Arts and Sangeetha Sabha stopped lighting auspicious oil lamps before the start of the various programmes after a major fire engulfed the auditorium and the whole hall rebuilt with the help of music lovers all over the country. It is time to follow strict guidelines in future and avoid major fire mishap of this nature.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
