MARGAO: Traders and citizens watched helplessly as a raging fire spread from one shop to another right in front of their eyes at Margao Municipal New market for want of water.
The arrival of a fire tender brought a sigh of relief on the beleaguered traders, but the tender soon returned back for refilling for want of water refilling points around the market, exposing the chinks in fire fighting arrangements in the Commercial Capital’s congested municipal markets. And, the handful of water buckets and hand operated fire hydrants did not prove to be of much help to contain the raging inferno.
As it turned out, the Margao fire station headed by an Assistant Fire Divisional officer, Nitin Raikar is equipped with only two fire tenders, of which one is presently out of order and undergoing repairs in the garage. A fire station whose jurisdiction is not restricted to the Commercial Capital, but entire Salcete taluka have just a lone fire tender at its disposal when there’s a requirement for a fleet of minimum 3-4 tenders.
Incidentally, fire officials in the know said the lone fire tender was attending a fire call near the Power House at Aquem in the morning when it was directed to head to the New Market area to attend to the fire call. “It’s not possible to attend fire calls with just one tender. We require minimum 3-4 tenders given our jurisdiction and the increasing number of fire call”, remarked a fire official in the know.
The official lamented that the State’s commercial capital has no full-fledged fire fighting mechanism in place. ‘It’s easy to blame the fire men every time. But, no one has implemented the recommendation made by the fire services to cover the entire city with fire hydrants. The handful of fire hydrants installed in the markets are of no use for want of pressure”, a fire official lamented.
