Team Herald

MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council has cancelled the plans for an overhead tank near the market area and has instead opted for a new high pressure water pipeline for market area fire hydrants. 

A number of commercial establishments have converted the mezzanine floors into storage spaces raising an alarm in case of fire incidents. 

The MMC officials along with the Fire Services and Water supply officials inspected the Margao market areas to get a new water pipeline to feed water to the fire hydrants. Chief Officer of MMC Yashwant Tawde informed, “The Municipal Engineer, Fire and other officials have done marking of the new pipeline fire hydrants and have cancelled the plan of overhead tank.”

Fire Officer Gil Souza said, “We have had a joint meeting and later a marking of areas from which the pipeline is planned to pass. This will feed water to the hydrants which are already in place.”

Gil also said illegal converting mezzanine into storage areas is dangerous to the entire market areas where establishments are operating close to each other. 

“The fire department is refraining from giving NOCs of fire because the fire safety mechanism of Margao town is out of date,” Gil informed.

Panic gripped the Margao market after a pharmacy connected to several other establishments had caught fire in 2016. The fire officers had then claimed that a little major fire would have caused grave results in the Market. 

A small short circuit on the mezzanine floor of the old structure had caused a minor fire and lot of smoke. Thankfully, the Fire Brigade was informed immediately and the fire was contained quickly.

In a similar incident, a tailoring shop on the ground floor of the Baboy Commercial complex caught fire and was later found that the shop had a trade licence but neither had an NOC from fire nor had any fire extinguishers.

The Fire Officer said that over 50 percent of the establishments operate in Margao in the same manner which makes functional fire hydrants imperative.