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Kumbakonam school fire

· Kumbakonam

Kumbakonam school fire
Trawell.in, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A fire at a school in Kumbakonam killed 94 children after a thatched roof caught fire, leading to new school safety rules.

On 16 July 2004 a fire broke out in the Krishna English Medium School in Kumbakonam, Thanjavur district, when sparks from a kitchen set a thatched roof alight. Ninety-four children from the primary section were killed. An inquiry found serious lapses, including overcrowding and buildings unfit for use as classrooms. The disaster led the government to ban thatched roofs in schools and tighten safety norms, and in 2014 a court convicted the school's founder and others.

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