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Puttingal temple is located in Kollam district of Kerala, a coastal town in Southern part of India. The temple hosts a 10-day annual celebration during the months of March and April and concludes with a grand display of fireworks contest and other related cultural events since many decades. In 2016 April, though permission to conduct the fireworks contest was denied by officials, the temple authorities went ahead with the convention and conducted the event. Unfortunately, the show of fireworks took a tragic turn on 10th April at around 3.13 a.m., when a stray cracker fell on a fireworks stockpile inside a concrete structure resulting in huge fire and explosion. The incident claimed 108 casualties and around 411 were injured following the explosion.

Documentation of such incidents and subsequent management efforts is vital to assess the institutional capacity of the system to tackle disasters. It also helps identify the pitfalls and thus provides an opportunity to build on the experiences. Hence, the present study tries to describe the activities related to the rescue of injured, their management, and the rehabilitation activities conducted in relation to the incident.

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