At least five persons suffocated to death in a major fire that engulfed an under-construction building in a plant of global vaccine giant Serum Institute of India (SII) in Pune on Thursday, triggering nationwide and global concerns.

The five who died were believed to be construction workers and their bodies were recovered during the sweeping and cooling operations, IANS said.
Four persons were rescued from the blaze which erupted on two or three upper floors of the SII building which was being readied for a BCG vaccine plant.

Allaying nationwide concerns over the fate of the Covid-19 vaccines being manufactured by the company, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla issued a personal statement of reassurance.

"I would like to reassure all governments and the public that there would no loss of Covishield production due to multiple production buildings that I had kept in reserve to deal with such contingencies at SII," Poonawalla said, seeking to quell anxieties among the company's global clientele.

Though sabotage has been ruled out, in view of the national and global concerns the tragedy evoked, the Maharashtra state government said that a thorough probe would be conducted into the incident, while reiterating that the Covidshield line facility was unaffected.

The fire, which broke out around 2.15 pm, was brought under control within three hours by a team of firemen and around a dozen fire tenders.

"The company has informed us that Covid-19 vaccine facility is at least one km away, and there is no cause for worry," Police Commissioner Amitabh GuptaGupta told the media.

As thick clouds of dark-grey smoke billowed out of the nearly-completed Manjari complex, social media went wild with speculation whether even stocks of the critical Covid-19 vaccines were snuffed out in the flames, but the clarifications by the SII and authorities scotched all rumours.

The SII is currently in the global limelight after it ranked among a handful of pharmaceutical companies worldwide to notch success in developing and manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine (branded Covishield), currently being administered to millions in India and in neighbouring countries.