SANGUEM: A house at Kuinamoll Sanguem was partially damaged after a major fire broke out due to short circuit in the refrigerator. The house belongs to one Shridhar Shirodkar.
The refrigerator was completely gutted in the fire. Other appliances such as ceiling fans, telephone, television, etc were also damaged. The total wiring of the house was damaged and cracks had developed in the walls.
The incident occurred in the afternoon hours when electricity in the village was just restored after three days of blackout due to cyclonic winds that lashed Sanguem taluka on Wednesday.
However, as soon as electricity was restored in the afternoon hours, many villagers suffered losses to their electronic gadgets allegedly due to short circuit. The house of Shridhar Shirodkar was closed at the time of incident.
However, the electricity department claims that the damage to the electric gadgets was due to lightning. But the villagers denied that was any lightning in the village on Friday.
Immediately after the incident, Sanguem Deputy Collector Ajay Gaude visited the village to get first hand information of the incident. Incidentally, till late evening no officials from the electricity department except for the linesman visited the village.
Gaude however contacted the Junior Engineer Atul Naik attached to the Electricity Department, Sanguem and directed him to submit a report of the incident and exact amount of loss suffered by the villagers by Saturday morning to his office.
At the time of incident, Shridhar Shirodkar was in the town while his wife had gone to stay at his daughter’s place. When Shirodkar opened his house, smoke was seen all around the house.
A villager Satish Shirodkar however averted a major tragedy after he managed to remove the gas cylinder out of the house before any further damage could be caused. Shirodkar reportedly suffered loss to the tune of around Rs 5 lakh.
Others in the village who suffered losses include Deepak Shirodkar, Mahesh Naik, Surendra Shirodkar and Satish Shirodkar.
Ironically despite several villagers having suffered losses to their electronic gadgets, the linesman has reported to the department only the loss caused to fridge owned by Shridhar Shirodkar.
