the goan I network
MARGAO
Fire personnel attached to the Margao fire brigade were kept on their toes on Wednesday after a couple of banyan trees got uprooted and came crashing down on the roads in Salcete.
With no heavy machinery, including JCB machines and excavators at their disposal, the fire personnel were left to attend to a number of emergency calls on a single day.
Fire officials have been left with no option but to knock on the doors of the local panchayats to requisition the services of expert cutters and mobilize machinery.
The huge banyan tree that came crashing down at Colva was cleared from the Colva-Benaulim road on Wednesday after the panchayat mobilized heavy machinery and expert cutters.
And, even as the road was cleared for traffic, the Margao fire brigade received a similar call of a banyan tree fallen on the Telaulim-Navelim border on Wednesday morning, blocking the road heading to the Navelim panchayat.
As the banyan tree came crashing down on the road and also on an adjoining wall and entrance gate of a residential building, the services of an expert cutter and private heavy machinery were mobilized to get the road cleared of the blockade. Sources said that while the fire brigade is armed with cutters, the number of emergency calls during monsoon, especially tree falls, have left the fire officials with no option but to seek the help of private cutters and machinery to help in the operation.
“The fire brigade has no heavy machinery at its disposal. The district disaster management authority should empanel heavy machinery suppliers and expert cutters to attend to emergencies, especially during monsoon, since clearing huge trees with the help of skeletal staff of the fire brigade is impossible,” sources said.
