TEAM HERALD
CANACONA: Canacona fire services have not ruled out foul play in the fire that gutted about 40 shops and destroyed property worth over Rs 85 lakh at Canacona Municipal Market in Chaudi late Tuesday night.
Though the cause has not ruled out foul play, police have been asked to investigate the fire mishap.
The fire mishap at Chaudi has come as a rude shock to the taluka, as it still struggles to recover from the horrific building tragedy two months ago. According to reports, about 42 shops located on the ground floor of the municipal market building were totally charred, while about 30 firefighters from fire stations of Canacona, Margao, Curchorem and Panjim battled for nearly five hours to finally bring the fire under control at 3.45 am on Wednesday.
Firefighters succeeded in averting any damage to the office of the Deputy TCP and other establishments situated on the first floor of the building. All files and documents in the office were reportedly safe.
There were about 42 shops in the two blocks on the ground floor having independent power connections, one block was exclusively for cloth merchants and the other block was used by vegetable and flower vendors.
Sources informed that some person in the vicinity noticed the fire and informed the police, who alerted the Canacona fire station at about 11.01 pm. Canacona fire brigade rushed to the site and sensing the gravity, sought assistance and more fire brigade vehicles were requisitioned.
As the fire raged with fire personnel trying hard to bring it under control, many locals and others who turned up in large numbers too assisted.
While the fire kept on raging, shortage of fire brigade was felt and even a water tanker arranged by councillor Simon Rebello was rushed to assist the fire personnel.
The fire was finally brought under control at about 3.45 am with the help of 30 fire services personnel from Margao, Curchorem and Panjim besides the fire personnel of Canacona led by station in-charge Namdeo Parwar. Canacona PI Harischandra Madkaikar, PSI Prashal Dessai and the entire police force was present at the site.
While fire personnel said the cause of fire is not known, Canacona fire station in-charge Namdev Parwar informed that police has been asked to investigate the cause.
When contacted, Canacona executive assistant engineer Santosh Lolayekar, who visited the site on Wednesday, said the cause of electrical short circuit could not be ascertained, as out of the two separate electrical installations, one is completely burnt and reduced to ashes, while the MCB and meter of the second installation in the vegetable block was found intact.
“The MCB had not even tripped. So the short circuit as most people are suspecting could not ascertained,” he said.
Director of Fire Services Ashok Menon along with Canacona Deputy Collector Sudhin Natu visited the site on Wednesday and took stock of the situation.
According to Canacona fire station in-charge Namdev Parwar, there were about 42 shops/earmarked spots on the ground floor of the municipal market building, but so far based on the description provided by about 27 vendors and owners mostly running vegetable shops, flower shops, ready-made garment shops, cosmetic, sandals and other shops, a loss of Rs 85 lakh is pegged.
