NEW DELHI, India (UPI): A massive blaze Friday raged through a grandstand crowded with parade spectators in eastern Bihar state, killing at least 25 people and leaving more than 100 others hurt by the fire and stampedes, the Press Trust of India said. The domestic news agency quoted Police Inspector General Vijay Pratap Singh as saying an electrical short circuit sparked the inferno in Jamshedpur, 675 miles southeast of New Delhi.
More than 30,000 people had gathered in the town for celebrations marking the 150th birth anniversary of the founder of the Tata Tron and Steel Co., one of India’s largest industrial companies, it said.
The Press Trust reported the flames first flickered from the cloth roof of a grandstand erected within the Tata steelworks complex for VIPs to watch a parade, and within minutes fire engulfed the entire pavilion and another adjacent VIP enclosure.
It said panic-stricken oc. cup ants, most of who were senior Tata officials and their families, stampeded toward exists to try and escape the blaze.
At least 25 people were burned or crushed to death.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 10, 1989
