On Sunday, Goa woke up to the news that seven shacks in Arambol were gutted in a blazing fire believed to have been caused by a short circuit. It capped a week that saw the fire services team responding to a range of fire incidents, including shops suffering catastrophic losses in Margao, incidents of dry grass catching fire, plantations nurtured over decades succumbing, and, of course, repeated incidents of fields catching fire in Taleigao.
It all begs the question: Are the State’s response agencies adequately equipped and have the necessary strength to respond quickly to incidents before it is too late, or is the capacity stuck in a time when the risks Goa faced were far fewer than they are now?
The fire tragedy at Birch by Romeo Lane should have been a wake-up call. While we can’t blame that on the shortfalls faced by the Fire Department, since then there has been no effort to improve the State’s readiness, especially along the coastal belt where many structures, especially high footfall venues, are quite literally tinderboxes being as they are, made of highly combustible material and located within inaccessible lanes and located within proximity to each other.
The Arambol incidents are a case in point. What began as a fire in one of the shacks spread to six others even before the fire services could begin controlling the flames. By the time the operation was completed, all seven shacks were gutted, causing losses running into crores of Rupees that will take years to recover from.
It is indeed quite the miracle that no lives were lost in the incident, and things could have been much worse had someone been trapped inside. But what the incident also exposed is that outside of a few centres, where fire stations are located, response times are quite long and by the time the fire brigade reaches on site, much of the damage is already locked in.
Calangute, Candolim and Baga-Arpora, for example, arguably the epicentre of Goa’s tourism industry, count the fire station located at the Pilerne Industrial Estate as their nearest fire station, with back-up usually dispatched from Mapusa and Porvorim. For the Coastal stretch in Pernem, the fire station is located at Pernem, a good half an hour away.
Anjuna-Vagator and Chapora rely on the Mapusa fire brigade, which is easily 45 minutes away at the earliest, given the narrow roads, speed breakers and traffic conditions. South Goa, though less dense, is equally vulnerable and is perhaps one major incident away from exposing all its fragilities.
It’s not a question of tourism establishments alone—fishermen’s huts and canoes, where combustible materials and fuel are stored, pose a greater threat than they appear from the outside.
Goa’s fire response readiness needs to evolve along with its changing economic and urbanisation patterns. While it is easy to say that owners of establishments need to understand that the State cannot be held responsible if they fail to make sure they have adequate equipment to tackle fires before they become too large to handle, such an argument ignores the fact that several of these fires take place at night when there’s no one around to quench them before they are out of control.
Goa must learn these lessons, else it won’t be long before such a similar fire claims lives just as it did in the Arpora nightclub in December last year.
