Among Serum Institute fire victims, 19-year-old man was on first job

Ramashankar Harijan 19 was the youngest amongst the five men who lost their lives in a fire on the premises of Serum Institute of India Pune on January 21 Harijan and Bipin Saroj 21 hailed from Pratapgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and worked at Singh Insulation a Pimpribased subcontractor The other victims were electrical engineer Mahesh Ingle 30 Pratik Paste 21 an inverter installation worker from Pune and Sushilkumar Pande 26 an electrical supervisor of Jogia village in Saran district of BiharRajendra Singh proprietor of MS Singh Insulation said this was the first accident involving his workers in 35 yearsldquoTwo freshers who were not even two months old in the company have succumbed in the accident leaving my staff and me in shockrdquo Harijan and Saroj were school dropouts and had been trained for the job at SII said SinghPratik Paste worked for a UPS battery manufacturer and was a student Sushilkumar Pande worked as an electrical supervisor He had come to Pune only on Dec 25ldquoWe were allotted a subcontract for lsquoinsulationrsquo work by a larger contractor hired by SII for their new plant where the incident happenedThe contractor had sublet the entire work to various subcontractors Our work insulation was almost done and only the finishing touches remainedrdquoSingh said it would be difficult to presume the cause of the fire stressing that his men had no role in it ldquoAt the time other labourers at the site were climbing the stairs to go to their respective floors after lunch They rushed outside the building and escaped unhurt But the five who were in proximity to the fire were not so luckyrdquoHarijan and Saroj had been provided with accommodation food and travel expenses ldquoI have 17 workers in my company and I treat them like my extended family We would also pay a monthly salary of Rs 10500 after deducting overhead expensesrdquo said Singh All work at SII has come to a halt he saidThe fire on SII premises was far from its COVID vaccine unitThe proprietor said his workers had insurance cover ldquoThe main contractor has insured all the subcontract workers and we have already submitted the claim documents Also the Serum Institute of Indiarsquos announcement of Rs 25 lakh for kin of each of the victims is awaited I have paid towards transporting the bodies by road and other expenses en routerdquo he addedlsquoFamily dependent on himrsquoOf the other victims Mahesh Ingle and Pratik Paste worked for a UPS inverter battery manufacturing company in Pune According to Yogesh Ghanekar uncle of Paste who was pursuing third year electronics and telecommunication at a private college on Sinhgad Road had been with the company for the last oneandahalf years and was paid Rs 12000 monthlyGhanekar told midday ldquoThe financial condition of Pratikrsquos family was not good Their only sources of income were a small tea stall that his father would run and Pratikrsquos salary He has a younger sister who is studyingrdquo On that morning Ghanekar recalled Paste left home at 11 am and headed to SII along with engineer Ingle with a UPS battery ldquoWe do not know what happened next I got a call from his mother in the afternoon saying Pratik had met with an accident I thought it might have been a road mishap but around 9 pm it was confirmed that he was among the five who died in the Serum Institute firerdquoThe relative said they were yet to receive any compensation ldquoWe were all in a state of shock and mourning We will now approach the authorities concerned and follow uprdquo said GhanekarlsquoCame to Pune on Dec 25rsquo Anurag Upadhyay a friend of fifth victim Sushilkumar Pande said the electrical supervisor had come to Pune only on December 25 and joined a subcontractor in the first week of January ldquoI could not attend his funeral as I was occupied with my work here I sent two of our villagers with his body to Biharrdquo said the distraught friendNational Disaster relief Force was on standbyAnupam Srivastav Pune Commandant of National Disaster Response Force said their team was called as a standby around 330 pm ldquoThe fire broke out in an underconstruction building on SII campus which was almost one and a half kilometer away from the COVID19 vaccine manufacturing buildingrdquo Srivastav said the fire brigade brought the blaze under control while his team remained on alertPune Police Commissioner Amitabh Gupta said ldquoWe are probing the case from all angles and are awaiting fire forensic reports to ascertain the exact cause of the firerdquo So far the police have registered an accidental death case under Section 174 of CRPC