Berhampur, Aug. 29: A woman died and seven others were injured after an explosion sparked off a fire at a wholesale fire-cracker market in Nilakantha Nagar today.

The fire that engulfed the market, the largest in the southern part of the state, devasted eight shops and crackers worth lakhs were destroyed. Ten fire tenders fought for four hours to bring the fire under control.

The identity of the deceased is yet to be known and her body was lying inside the market complex till evening. The injured persons were identified as Runa Panda, Mami Gouda, N.G. Amma, Rina Sahu, Hari and Santosh. They were treated at City Hospital. They were later discharged, according to hospital sources.

The deceased was a casual labourer and was working in one of the shops.

An eyewitness said he heard a loud bang around 10.15am.

“The sound was deafening. It came from shop No. 57. The flames spread to adjoining shops. Within minutes there was fire everywhere.”

The eyewitness said that the impact of the explosion was huge.

“The impact of explosion was such that a jeep parked in front of the shop and the iron grill of the shop went around 15ft into the air by and were found lying 40ft away from the spot,” he said. The sound was so loud that it could be heard from a distance of 10 to 12 kilometres away.

“Within minutes, the place was engulfed by smoke and fire. There were a series of blasts during the first half-hour,” said a shopkeeper.

Deputy fire officer Dhaneshwar Das said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained.

A cracker trader Surya Narayan Subudhi said: “Shop No. 57, owned by T Laxminarayan, is used as a go-down to store empty cartons. The cartons are compressed in machines and are sent to Calcutta after being properly packed. The job is done by the skilled labourers.”

There was no electricity in the shopping complex at the time of the incident giving rise to speculation that people working in the shop where the explosion originated “may have used the compressor powered by gas. There may have been some leakage and that may have caused the explosion”, Subudhi said.

Fire officials of Berhampur fire station, however, said they were trying to ascertain the cause of fire. As the fire broke out, traders were seen leaving the place with their stocks.

Ganjam district collector V Kartikeya Pandian warned the traders not to indulge in such acts.

“It violates the license provision for cracker traders. There are reports that some traders have moved their stock to their homes. This is dangerous. We will arrest traders who have stored crackers in places other than their shops,” the collector said.

Pandian said that Rs 1 lakh compensation would be given to the family members of the deceased person.

He said that 10 fire tenders were pressed into service. “We secured fire tenders from Purushottampur, Digapahandi, Hinjlicatu and other places. Fire tenders at Indian Rare Earth Limited Matikhala and Army Cantonment were also alerted in case of an emergency,” he added.

“There are 80 shops inside the cracker market, out of which eight shops (Shop Nos.51 to 59) were completely damaged. Usually, crackers worth Rs 5 to 7lakh are stored in a shop. However, we can’t estimate the exact loss”, said Inku Gouda, president of the the Sri Sri Balunkeswar Fireworks Traders’ Association.

“The fire that engulfed eight rooms started from Annapurna Stores in shop No. 57 owned by T Laxminarayan. But the cause of the fire is not yet known”, said Inku.

The eight rooms damaged in the fire include shop Nos. 51 to 54 owned by Raja, No. 55 owned by Inku Gouda, Nos. 57 and 58 by T Laxminarayan and No. 59 owned by Sujit Kumar Sahu.

Berhampur sub-collector Ajit Mishra, who supervised the fire and rescue operations, said that an over-head water tank, five large fire extinguishers and lots of sand were needed to douse the flames in the cracker market complex.