House, huts destroyed in fire at Khola

CANACONA, MAY 20
A house and four firewood storing structures went up in flames in a fire at Matvem-Moll, Khola on Thursday afternoon, causing a loss of Rs 2 lakh.
According to Canacona fire services, some people were working to repair the roof of a firewood stocking hut and a fire was lit nearby to destroy the unusable materials brought down from this hut undertaken for repair.
However, the flames spread quickly due to strong winds and destroyed the five structures within minutes.
The fire services received a call at about 11 am and reached the accident site within minutes. But one trip was not sufficient to bring the raging fire under control, forcing the fire services to return a second time to finally successfully stop the uncontrollable fire from spreading to nearby houses.
A fire brigade succeeded in stopping the fire from engulfing the house (roof tiles) of one Ramesh Dholo Velip, but could not do anything to save his firewood stocking hut, causing Ramesh a loss of over Rs 80,000.
Firewood stocking huts belonging to Khushali Dholo Velip, Datta Dholo Velip and Panglo Voddo Velip, each valued at about Rs 40,000, were, however, destroyed in the fire. Two mango trees were also reportedly burnt in the inferno.
“If not for our timely help, the fire could have been a catastrophe of sorts at Matvem-Moll, Khola, as several other residential houses in the area would have been destroyed,” a fire official told Herald.
Sub-officer K D Sail, leading fire-fighters  H U Dessai, R T Devides, M M Fernandes, A A Sawant, T A Dessai, R B Velip, H R Revankar and N R Saterkar took part in the fire extinguishing exercise.