Team Herald
PONDA: The fire atop the hillock near Sanjivani Sugar Factory, Dharbandora which has been raging since the past four days, intensified on Sunday, raising concerns that the inferno could spread to the vicinity of the sugar factory by Monday morning.
Over 60 forest workers, who have been engaged in the fire-fighting operations, failed to bring the situation under control till late Sunday evening.
The efforts are on in full swing to douse the raging inferno atop the hillock. However, the hilly terrain made it difficult for a fire tender to reach the site, which compelled the workers to carry out the operations to douse the fire manually.
The workers led by Collem forest official Narayan Prabhudesai have been working towards bringing control over the situation under the guidance of Deputy Forest Officer Jis Vargi on Sunday. A helicopter too was pressed into service for dousing the fire at Shigao-Collem. The chopper used the water from a mining pit at Codli.
Meanwhile, several fire incidents have been reported in the last many days in Ponda and Dharbandora talukas.
Fire incidents were reported at Matoje, Tambdi Surla and Usgao. The fire at Tambdi Surla was extinguished by forest workers with the help of locals and Collem Police.
The blaze at Usgao was extinguished with the help of a fire tender from Ponda.
Meanwhile, Dharbandora Deputy Collector Nilesh Dhaigodkar has convened a joint-meeting today (Monday) morning at his office to discuss the future course of action.
The officials of the police, forest and fire departments of Ponda and Collem are expected to attend the meeting.
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Eight forest fires active till Sun evening, says dept
Team Herald
PANJIM: In its latest update on the fire incidents reported across the State, the Forest Department released the statistics stating the total number of active forest fires are eight till Sunday evening.
The eight active fires are at following places: Surla I-Mollem, Surla II-Mollem, Potrem-Netravali, Cumari-Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary, Kopardem-Valpoi, Shigao, Curdi-Colomba and Okambi-Piliem.
The lone new fire incident was reported at Okambi-Piliem on Sunday morning, Forest Minister Vishwajit Rane said, adding that it is a relief and expressed confidence that with the efforts of Forest Department team, the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Navy, and locals who have fought this fire valiantly for days, will not go in vain as they will soon be able to control this situation.
Rane further said that to assist the ground team’s efforts to put out the fire, two Indian Air Force (IAF) helicopters are flying sorties since morning, and expressed his gratitude to the Union government for closely monitoring the situation.
Also over 450 volunteers have been deployed, he added.
On Saturday, the team of forest depot fire-fighters fighting the fire on the ground doused 16 infernos.
Meanwhile, the Forest Minister reiterated that strict action will be taken against any person found doing any sort of infraction that could be detrimental and lead to thwarting the efforts being put in by the government officials in controlling the forest fires. Stating that such behaviour will not be tolerated, he has asked the Goa Police to step up the patrolling within their respective jurisdictions and conduct joint patrolling.
Meanwhile, the Sanguem Range Forest Officials were kept on their toes after the fire raged at three places in the dense forest at Vichundrem Hill in Netravali.
Deputy Conservator of Forest Minguel Fernandes said that the fire was brought under control and will be extinguished soon.
Fernandes informed that the forest officials also doused a minor fire reported at Rivona.
It is pertinent to note here that the officials of the Forest Department in Sanguem have been kept busy for the past one week following several fire incidents reported on the hills and at other places.
Earlier, the forest department team worked overnight since yesterday to bring the ravaging fire, which destroyed several trees, under control.
Sources informed that the fires reported at Netravali, were also brought under control.
