PANAJI
While they could have done better with more modern equipment and a greater emphasis on training, Goa’s fire-fighters have given a fairly good account of themselves rescuing 104 people and saving property worth crores of rupees in the nearly nine months this year.
Senior officials of the Goa Fire and Emergency Services said, in the period between January 1 and September 15 this year, the force responded to 7,431 distress calls and managed to save 104 lives. These fire and emergency incidents, meanwhile, claimed 76 lives and destroyed property worth Rs 6 crores.
“We however managed to save property worth nearly Rs 17 crore and also additionally rescued 429 animals,” a top fire services officer said.
Almost half the number of calls were related to fire incidents and the rest were other emergencies caused by unusual weather conditions or flooding due to torrential rains with Ponda accounting for the highest number of calls, followed by Mapusa and Pernem.
Taluka-wise, Bardez accounted for the most calls -- 1,305 and 761 of them were related to fire incidents. Salcete was next with 1051 distress calls. Tiswadi accounted for 1,013 calls, Ponda had 981 and Bicholim 598.
