Kakinada, Oct 5th: Officials directed manufacturers and traders of crackers to strictly follow the suggested safety measures and rules, so that fire mishaps does not take place due to illegal storing and manufacturing of firecrackers which endangers the lives of innocent people. Due to illegal storing, recently a major blast took place here where five people were charred to death. Though police are raiding places of illegal storage it is learnt that some manufactures and traders are illegally storing fireworks stocks near residential, industrial and commercial areas in the town.

Recently, I Town police raided the house of a trader A. Raghuramaiah and recovered nearly Rs 30 lakh worth firecrackers illegally stored in his three storied house at Temple Street here. In another case, the major explosion that occurred at the main road here last Sunday, shows how hazardous firecrackers are if stored in public places. Kakinada divisional fire officer, Mr. E. Yusuf, said that an emergency meeting was held on Monday with officials of fire, revenue, Municipal Corporation and panchayat raj. There they took the decision of canceling all licenses, roughly 40 in number of traders and manufacturers of fireworks, who had applied earlier.