The afternoon siesta this Sunday were disturbed by frantic calls to the Fire Brigade by the local Panch Francisco Braganza as the ancestral house of Dr. Sanjay Coelho caught fire.
In the interim Goa State Treasurer of the Congress Mr. Orville Dourado Rodrigues along with his resort personnel responded immediately with his portable fire fighting equipment and with the assistance of some local villagers managed to bring the huge inferno under control.
Though the Fire brigade personnel from Verna Fire Station were quick to respond to the emergency, they couldn’t reach the heritage house which was barely 100 meters across the existing South Western Railway tracks as an irresponsible Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) had destroyed an age old culvert on the Left side of the house which used to be a motorable Right of Way (ROW) since 1890s. Despite several representations to their office, the culvert work was left unfinished and this resulted in the fire brigade taking a detour via Cansaulim and Arossim villages to reach Primeirovaddo, Velsao, in the process affecting the fire fighting operations by over 45 minutes. If not for the valiant fire fighting efforts of the villagers, the heritage house would have been reduced to rubble.
Apart from the burnt down one section of the roof, priceless antique furniture was lost in the fire. Dr. Sanjay Coelho was aghast at seeing his ancestral house in ruins, profusely blamed the South Western Railways for the losses. He even reminded the press that his written complaint against the South Western Railways and their contractor RVNL to the Goa Police, Verna for dumping mud in front of his ancestral home which went unattended. He thanked the villagers particularly Orville Dourado Rodrigues for responding immediately and saving a larger part of his heritage home.
Later on, the other section of the Coelho family to their surprise found out that their residence was broken into by burglars and priceless articles were found missing. Goa police personnel were at the scene conducting the panchanama.
Orville Dourado Rodrigues made an appeal to the Goa Police to immediately conduct a tenant verification drive to weed out anti-social elements which could have infiltrated the village consisting mostly of senior citizens.