the goan I network
VASCO
While Goa celebrated Christmas on Tuesday, a fire broke out at the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) owned shops opposite the Vasco Fish market in the heart of the city.
Four shops, adjacent to each other, were gutted in the fire and Vasco Fire Department has assessed the losses to around Rs 9 lakh. The shop owners have claimed that the losses could be much higher then what was estimated by the fire department.
The four shops are owned by Srikant Borkar, Amaldar Singh, Ambika Naik and Shobha Chouhan who traded in footwear and bags, pan masala, fruit juice and hair cutting services.
According to an eyewitness, the shops caught fire at around 5.20 am. They immediately alerted the Vasco Police Station and also the Vasco Fire department who immediately rushed to the site.
Since the shops were shuttered, it was difficult to control the fire. Fire tenders from Verna and MPT were called for assistance. The fire was doused after two hours of firefighting and though the cause of fire was not known, it is suspected to be a case of electrical short circuit.
According to Vasco Fire Officer Vivekanand Bhatkar, he received a call at around 5.34 am and they reached the site within 3 minutes.
“The shop owners were informed and they arrived on the site. Electrical connections were cut before we could start our work. With such a huge fire on site and shops being locked, we asked for assistance from Verna and MPT,” he said.
“The footwear shop owner has claimed that his losses to be around Rs 16 lakh but our estimate has put the figure at approximately Rs 5 lakh. The pan masala shop owner has claimed that his losses to be Rs 1.5 lakh but we feel that losses will be around 90 thousand rupees. The juice Centre shop owner has claimed a loss of 4 lakh but our estimate is around Rs 1.2 lakh. While, the hair cutting saloon has claimed a loss of Rs 4 lakh which estimate to be at Rs 1.8 lakh. We have estimated the total losses to be around Rs 9 lakh but if the shop owners can provide detailed statements of what items were there while the shop was on fire we can ask our superiors to recheck the estimated losses after an
inspection,” Bhatkar added.
