Fire in Raigad factory: Eight bodies recovered

Eight bodies have been recovered till Saturday afternoon following the fire that broke out at a pharmaceutical company in Maharashtra

Eight bodies have been recovered till Saturday afternoon following the fire that broke out at a pharmaceutical company in Maharashtra's Raigad district a day ago, while the search for three missing persons continued, a National Disaster Response Force official said.

However, Raigad police, in a release late in the evening, put the death toll at seven, adding that samples had been obtained from the kin of the 11 persons, who were declared missing immediately after the blaze, for identification purposes through DNA testing.

The blaze at Blue Jet Healthcare in MIDC Mahad in Raigad district, some 170 kilometres from Mumbai, started at 11 am on Friday, the NDRF official added.

"While four bodies were found till 7 am, another four were recovered till 5 pm. These are part of the 11 persons who had gone missing following the fire. Search operations with personnel from local agencies as well as NDRF for the remaining three continue," he said.

As per preliminary investigation, the fire may have started due to a short-circuit leading to barrels filled with chemicals at the site exploding, which further intensified the blaze, the official said.