MARGAO
Will the Margao City Fathers, the civic babus and the powers that be pay heed to the fire wake up call and accord priority to make heritage Margao Municipal building fire proof in the wake of the fire incident reported in the building earlier this month?
It’s exactly a fortnight since the March 1 fire in the Councillor’s room set alarm bells and pressed the panic button in the Municipal corridors and outside as the incident brought to the fore the susceptibility of the 118-year-old heritage building to fire, with no fire protection mechanism in place in and around the civic building.
Consider this. Have any of the government agencies, including the Fire services and Electricity department conducted an inspection of the heritage building in the last 15 days to conduct a fire and electricity audit of the imposing structure.
The answer, sources informed, is a firm no. Post-fire incident, neither the Director of Fire Services nor the Divisional Fire officer nor the Fire Officer have sent any communique to the civic body to implement fire prevention measures, leave along visited the building for an inspection.
A senior fire official informed that the Margao fire office had in the past issued directives to the Municipality to implement a host of fire prevention measures, but in vain. Questions, however, remain unanswered whether the fire services have sent any latest recommendations to the civic body in the light of the March 1 incident.
That’s not all. Given that the fire occurred in a socket of an air conditioner before it spread to the adjoining chair and wall, questions are being asked in the corridors of the civic body as to why none of the power officials have visited the building to conduct an electricity audit of the structure.
After the fire incident on March 1, The Goan understands that a private agency had approached the Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar and Municipal Engineer Manoj Arsekar with a proposal to install fire extinguishers all round the building to take care of emergencies. It is estimated that the proposal will cost around Rs 4.5 lakh to implement the fire prevention measures.
Inquiries, however, have revealed that the since the cost of implementing the fire prevention measures is estimated over Rs 50,000, the civic body is duty bound to float a tender and comply with the codal formalities.
When The Goan contacted Municipal Engineer Manoj Arsekar to shed light on the proposal, he said a letter from the civic body has gone to the Fire services to inspect the building and to offer comment on the proposal submitted by the agency to implement the measures.
Sources at the Margao fire brigade office, however, revealed that no such letter has been received from the MMC till date, saying the civic body might have addressed the letter to the head office.
A lower rung MMC official, however, hoped that the correspondence between the civic body and the Fire services does not end up in red tape like many a proposal which never saw light of the day.
Incidentally, sources in the fire services informed that mere installation of the fire extinguishers will not help fight fires in the Municipal building unless supplemented by other fire prevention measures.
“Since a significant portion of the building, including the tiled roof and the floor all comprises of wood, there’s an urgent need to paint the building with fire retardant paint. To detect smoke and fire, the building should have the fire and smoke detection system in place, especially if the fire breaks out after office hours in the night,” the fire official added.
