Pune: Five deaths have been confirmed so far in the massive fire reported at the Serum Institute of India (SII) unit in Manjari near Hadapsar on Thursday afternoon. The deceased include one woman and four men who were trapped at the fifth floor of the unit inside the SII premise.

Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute, had tweeted a while before that no lives were lost and no one was injured in the incident. However, as the rescue operation proceeded further, the dead bodies were recovered from the unit.  Adar later tweeted about the distressing updates and offered condolences to the family members

The COVISHILED vaccine production unit of Serum Institute of India at Manjari near Hadapsar is completely safe and far from the site where a massive fire broke out on Thursday afternoon at around 2pm.

Pune Municipal Corporation Fire Brigade department has rushed 16 fire tenders to the spot to douse the fire. A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been deputed at the site.

Mayor Murlidhar Mohol also stated categorically that the vaccine production unit of the Serum Institute is completely safe.

"Four people were trapped in a building at the site but they have been successfully rescued. The fire brigade jawans and officials are present on site and have brought the fire under control. Fire will be doused in some time."

NDRF Commandant Anupam Shrivastava told Deccan Express that one team called the ECG unit has been rushed to the site. "The fire reported is at a building which is far away from the actual production unit. We have kept the team on a standby in order to check no further untoward incident happens at the site after the rescue operation is over."

The Fire Brigade department had received a call about a major fire incident at the new unit of Serum Institute of India (SII) at Manjari area near Hadapsar on Thursday afternoon. Initially four and later six more fire tenders were dispatched to bring the fire under control and douse it.

Serum Institute of India is producing the COVISHIELD vaccine for COVID19 disease. The company is producing around 10 million doses of COVISHIELD per month for India as well as other countries in the world.

Serum Institute is the largest vaccine producer company in the world with production of as many as 70 per cent of total vaccines produced in the world.