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| Wednesday, 25 February 2004 |
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Six killed as fire rips through India's space centre ANDHRA PRADESH, Tuesday (AFP) Six people were killed and three others seriously injured when fuel being loaded for tests on a satellite launch rocket exploded, sparking a huge fire at India's main space centre. A spokesman for the Sriharikota space centre in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh said that a senior space engineer was among the dead. "Finally after more than six hours, rescue teams were able to enter the building," spokesman C. Ravindranath said. "Six bodies were taken out and all were men, including two labourers." "The building is affected badly and it took time to get in," he said. The space centre contains a satellite launch pad, a technical center for rocket testing and assembly, and a range of other facilities for launch control and satellite tracking. Ravindranath said there were seven people inside when the fire broke out. "The two labourers... (then) went in to help the engineers," he said. Ravindranath said that firefighters had brought the blaze under control after battling it for two hours. An official at the scene said the fire had triggered off an explosion that blew the roof of the building. The chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, Madhavan Nair, arrived in the southern Indian city of Madras late Monday from Bangalore, to supervise the rescue and clean-up operations. Nair told reporters in Bangalore that the fire broke out as the propellant was being tested in the solid propellant space booster plant at the Satish Dhawan station. |
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