Rs 2 cr worth goods go up in smoke at Kundaim

Rs 2 cr worth goods go up in smoke at Kundaim
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
MARCEL, SEPT 2
Property worth over Rs 2 crores was destroyed in a fire at a manufacturing unit in Kundaim Industrial Estate on Thursday morning.
No one was injured in the incident. The incident occurred at about 8.20 am on the second floor of the Oriental Containers unit that manufactures bottle caps. The second floor is utilized to stock the finished products along with the raw materials.
When the fire broke out, the workers tried using the fire extinguishers, but to no use. Some workers in a bid to save finished material threw it outside from the second floor, but with the rising intensity of the fire, they gave up and escaped in time.
Within minutes, the fire spread to the entire store room, engulfing the stored material, but the flames did not spread to the main operating unit on the ground floor.
The fire also damaged the roof, with asbestos sheets partially burnt in the blaze.
Workers from Oriental Containers later alerted the Kundaim fire station.
“When we reached the site, we saw dense smoke emanating from the second floor of the unit and there was a massive fire,” informed Kundaim Fire Station Fire Officer Shripad Gawas.
Fire tenders from Old Goa, Panjim and Ponda rushed to extinguish the fire, which lasted about 45 minutes.
The estimated loss is said to be about Rs 2.2 crore, while fire personnel managed to save property worth Rs 2.5 crore.
“We began operation to douse the fire and were soon joined by another fire tender from a private company from the same locality. However, with strong intensity of the fire, more fire tenders were summoned from Ponda, Old Goa and Panjim fire stations. It took us about 45 minutes to completely douse off the fire,” informed Gawas.
Interestingly, there were no electrical fittings, which could have been blamed for the short circuit and the cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
“There were no electrical fittings and a short circuit could not have triggered the inferno. We are investigating the source of the fire,” said Gawas.
Director of Fire and Emergency Services Ashok Menon and Sub Divisional Fire Officer from Ponda Redkar also visited the site.