A major tragedy could have taken place if the cylinder had to explode in the crowded locality.
Fire fighters rushed to the site and doused the fire from the leaking gas cylinder, gas burner and cooled down the cylinder with water, before taking it to the beach and discharging the entire gas in the air.
According to fire officer Francisco Mendes, the entire operation ended only after the empty commercial LPG gas cylinder was handed over to the gas agency in the taluka.
“The gas cylinder was placed inside a pucca constructed room, which was used by an ayurvedic doctor at Devanbhag-Agonda beachside. Suddenly, leaking gas from the cylinder caught fire, while the burner was on. The helper, Teju Mathew, who tried to extinguish the fire, sustained burn injuries to his legs and hands. Mathew was given medical attention,” said Mendes.
The gas burner and some electrical fixtures were burnt in the incident, before the fire personnel took charge of the situation at about 2.40 pm. The total estimated damage is about Rs 10,000. A tragedy was however averted as the entire area is saturated with shacks, huts and other tourism-related activities.
“Even though a fire extinguisher was noticed, no permission or NOC was obtained from the fire services at the respective structure, which according to information given to me, is used as an ayurvedic massage parlour,” he said.
Fire fighters Satish Dessai, Prabhakar Velip, Ratnakar Gaonkar, driver operator Vinay Velip and Balchandra Velip took part in the operation.
