Goods worth Rs one cr gutted in Kavlem inferno
Plastic goods, stoves, household items and other material stored in the godown, housed in a ground plus two storey building were gutted; The building on the verge of collapse; Fire Dept to probe the incident as plastic cannot be stored in a residential area
Team Herald
PONDA: In a major fire incident reported at Dumre–Kavlem, plastic and other goods worth Rs one crore were gutted inside a godown located in a residential area on Sunday afternoon.
Plastic goods, stoves, household items and other material were destroyed in the fire, which broke out in the godown, housed in a ground plus two storey building.
The impact of the blaze was such that the building developed cracks and is on the verge of collapse. However, two workers were rescued by Kavlem residents, as the fire spread to a house located nearby. The fire personnel and locals managed to save the house from further damage.
A fire fighter, whose boot got stuck while containing the fire, sustained leg injuries.
The locals and motorists plying along the route were shocked to witness the black smoke billowing in the sky. The locals could witness a thick dark cloud from the GVM Circle up to the Borim Bridge, elsewhere in Kavlem and Ponda town. At first, many thought it to be a dark rain cloud however, were shocked to see the godown on fire.
Director of Fire and Emergency Services Nitin Raikar, who was commuting along the National Highway, saw the thick dark cloud of smoke and immediately rushed to the site.
He said, “We will conduct a thorough investigation into the fire incident as plastic cannot be stored in a residential area. A total of 30 fire tenders were pressed into service from Ponda, Margao, Vasco and other areas along with several PWD water tankers as thousand litres of foam were used to extinguish the fire. The loss is estimated to be around Rs one crore.”
He said, “The building is owned by one Virdharan Bishnoi. However, the exact cause of the fire is not yet ascertained. Luckily one of our fire fighters immediately removed two domestic gas cylinders from the building and two others from the nearby house which also caught fire.”
Local MLA Sudin Dhavalikar immediately rushed to the site.
Kavlem sarpanch Rajesh Kavlekar said the bungalow which caught fire belongs to Bishnoi, a wholesaler of plastic goods and added that he had warned Bishnoi not to store plastic and other goods in the premises.
In all 25 fire-fighters under leadership of Ponda Fire Station in-charge Sushil Morajkar battled the raging fire for nearly six hours before extinguishing it.
Those residing in the houses located nearby said, “We were fortunate that the incident took place during the day and the timely intervention by the fire-fighters, who were helped by Kavlem locals, managed to prevent the fire from spreading to the residential area, which could have proved disastrous if the incident occurred at night.”
It is pertinent to note that this is the second major fire incident reported in Ponda as earlier around seven years ago the VPK Bazaar located in Savitri Hall building was gutted resulting in a major loss.
