Team Herald
MARGAO: A major fire broke out at the Sonsoddo garbage dump on Friday afternoon due to short circuit in a 33 KV high tension overhead cable. The massive fire triggered anxiety amongst locals as memories of the previous blaze that engulfed the area in May 2019 returned to haunt the local residents once again.
Shockingly, even though most of the candidates who contested the Assembly polls had mentioned in their respective manifestos about resolving the Sonsoddo issue, however only a handful of could be seen at the site.
Fire officials cited short-circuit of a 33 KV high tension line passing above the dump area as cause of fire, which further got intensified due to presence of presence of methane gas under the waste heap.
It took almost six to seven hours to extinguish the fire. Fire tenders from Margao, besides, Ponda, Cuncolim, Curchorem and Verna were called to douse the fire.
Upon hearing the news of fire outbreak, Deputy Collector, South Prasad Volvoikar besides Chief Officer, Margao Municipal Council Agnelo Fernandes, Chairperson Lyndon Pereira and other officials rushed to the site.
It was at 12.30 pm when the workers of the civic body engaged in baling the garbage noticed the fire and within no time it spread all over the garbage dump. Luckily, the fire did not reach inside the landfill site shed, wherein a thousand of tonnes of waste is lying untreated. Few workers engaged at the site immediately moved out from the area to avoid any causality. However, two baling machines and the shade which was constructed just a few months ago gutted in fire. Besides, a major portion of MMC office at the site got damaged in the fire.
Smoke was seen billowing out from the base of the dump, and the fire personnel were battling with the flames in the hot sun till the late evening. The fire tenders faced a tough time to refill their tanks as the hoses located on the roadside near Sonsodo yard was buried as a footpath was constructed over them.
The Sonsoddo landfill site has a history of fire outbreaks. Yet there is no solution in sight to deal with this vexed issue.
Lyndon Pereira informed that the civic body has written to Electricity Department asking it to shift the 33KV High Tension Line in order to avoid any casualties due to electrocution and fire. But nothing has been done till date.
“This problem wouldn’t have occurred had the Electricity Department acted on our request. He also said that this problem would have not been witnessed, if the power department had shifted the line upon the request of the civic body,” Pereira said.
Deputy Collect Prasad Volvoikar said that fire personnel are worked hard to douse the fire. The fire was eventually extinguished at 7pm.
“I have been told that the MMC had requested the power department to shift the high tension line passing above the dump, which is almost touching the small trees over here. But it seems nothing has been done to date,” he said.
