NT Reporter
Panaji
For around 21 hours, firefighters used nearly 80,000 litres of water to bring under control a fire that broke out at a garbage dump site on the hillock near Karmali railway station, Carambolim in Tiswadi. The incident was reported to the Old Goa fire station at around 11.38 pm on Sunday, and the blaze was finally contained by 7.30 pm on Monday.
As soon as the Old Goa fire station received the call, fire personnel rushed to the site, with tenders from Old Goa, Ponda and Panaji pressed into service. The cause of the fire remains unknown, said fire officials, adding that duty crews remained on standby for hours, sprinkling water to prevent the flames from spreading. The dump has a metal shed, and houses are located around 200 metres away, said personnel.
Leading firefighter Amit Rivonkar, who monitored the blaze from Sunday night, said that initially three tenders were deployed. “Even after that fire continued, possibly owing to the large amount of plastic and other combustible waste material,” said Rivonkar, adding that “we also informed the authorities concerned including the Carambolim
panchayat.”
As the fire persisted, additional tenders were called in. The panchayat arranged for a JCB to separate and shift the garbage. “We sprayed water on the garbage which was loaded in the truck. Owing to the fire, the temperature at the site had increased and there were possibilities that garbage could catch fire during the transportation,” said Rivonkar.
He said that duties were rotated after several hours, but he chose to remain at the site until the fire was controlled by 7.30 pm on Monday.
