Two dead, five injured in Indian pharma factory fire

By Rishika Sadam

HYDERABAD (Reuters) -Two people were dead and five others were injured in a fire at a unit of a privately held pharmaceutical company in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Friday, the police said.

The fire broke out in a solvent reactor at a unit of Sahithi Pharma in Andhra Pradesh's Anakapalli district, the district superintendent of police, Murali Krishna, said.

Of the five injured, one of them is extremely critical with over 95% burns, Andhra Pradesh Industries and Information Technology Minister Gudivada Amarnath told Reuters.

"The incident was reported at around 11 in the morning at Sahithi Pharma's solvent recovery unit and it took 6 hours to get the situation under control," Amarnath said after he visited the pharma unit.

A committee, with officials from the state revenue department, police, pollution control board and deputy inspector of factories, is being constituted to conduct a detailed inquiry to identify the cause of the incident, the minister said.

Sahithi Pharma did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The chief minister's office has announced an ex gratia of 25 lakh rupees to the families of the dead, the minister said.

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam in Hyderabad, Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Anil D'Silva)