Raging flames reduce tonnes of plastic, dry waste stacked at baling shed to ashes; MMC CO claims fire occurred after an overhead 33KV line snapped on the dump
MARGAO
Sonsodo dump was engulfed by a massive fire on Friday noon, as the raging flames reduced hundreds of tonnes of plastic and dry waste stacked at a baling shed and adjoining area to ashes, raising concerns of environmental pollution and health hazard in the surrounding area.
Thick black smoke billowed from the dump since 12.45 pm on Friday. A thick black cloud of smoke hovered over the sky and could be noticed from a distance from Borda, Gogol, Raia and Curtorim.
Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes has claimed that the fire occurred after an overhead 33KV line snapped on the dump, triggering the massive fire. In fact, a snapped 33KV line was found lying on the approach road to the Sonsodo plant, while another line was seen in a melted state.
Incidentally, the overhead 33KV power line was the cause of a fire at Sonsodo in 2019 after a surveyor sustained injuries while conducting a survey at the site, and the electric spark causing a major fire.
Fortunately, the Ponda-Raia power line tripped averting a disaster at the site, before the power department staff were told to go for a shutdown to facilitate fire-fighting operations.
Fire spread rapidly towards the upper portion of the Sonsodo dump facilitated by the strong winds blowing towards the plant and baling machine shed side. The lower portion, comprising of the legacy dump, was left untouched. Heavy machinery was deployed to dig a trench to ensure the fire does not spread towards the lower portion.
The Margao fire brigade that rushed to the spot at around 1 pm on Friday finally managed to cap the fire after a fire-fighting operation spanning around seven hours. Around 84,000 litres of water was used to bring the fire under control. Fire officer, Gill De Souza informed that over 20-truck load of mud was used to cap the fire before the entire operation ended at around 7.40 pm.
“For the moment, the fire brigade has capped the fire with water and mud. But, minor smoke was spotted at a couple of places. We have used the mud since the smoke was coming out from the ground fueled by the methane gas underneath the dump,” Gill said.
He said three water bowsers were used by the fire services, two of which were requisitioned from the Curchorem and Ponda fire stations. In addition, six fire tenders from Cuncolim and Ponda were deployed in the fire-fighting operations, he added.
As the fire threatened to spread across the dump, bringing back the bitter memories when the entire dump was engulfed by fire a couple of years ago, Margao Municipal Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes dashed off letters to the South Goa Collector to help provide mud to cap the fire, the PWD to make arrangements for uninterrupted water supply to assist in the fire-fighting operations and the electricity department to install makeshift lighting facility at the Sonsodo approach road in the event the fire-fighting had to continue through the night.
Meanwhile, the Margao Municipal Chief Officer has written to the Fatorda police station to register a complaint in respect of the fire incident at Sonsodo.
Margao Deputy Collector, Prasad Volvoikar along with Fatorda P Girendra Naik, besides Margao Municipal Chairperson Lyndon Pereira, Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes, Municipal engineers Manoj Arsekar, Vishant Naik, Sanitary inspector Viraj Arabekar, councillors Sadanand Naik and Babita Naik had all descended at Sonsodo.
