the goan I network
MARGAO
Around 18 fire personnel, as many labourers, three emergency tenders and a handful of mechanical cutters. That’s the men and machinery attached to an overstretched Margao fire brigade, flooded with emergency calls as trees have been literally falling across Salcete like ninepins in the last three days.
Just image a situation when the fire brigade is flooded with 50 emergency calls, mostly relating to tree falls in just three days. With three vehicles at its disposal and the staff and labourers equally divided and deployed in the vehicles, firemen have been literally on their toes in Salcete, at least in the last three days since the State witnessed incessant and heavy rainfall, accompanied by gusty winds.
If Sunday alone recorded a whopping 26 emergency calls, mostly relating to uprooted trees, either falling on houses, electric poles and on roads, blocking traffic, the situation only aggravated on Monday and Tuesday with rains and winds showing no signs of abating.
Even as the firemen with help and assistance of the 18 labourers provided by the Margao and Cuncolim Municipal Councils tried to attend TO each and every emergency call the control room received on Sunday, only to realise the following day that dozens of similar calls have flooded the fire brigade on Monday.
And, Tuesday was no different with emergency calls kept flooding the fire brigade like in the last two days.
A firemen told The Goan that the staff and labourers are all overstretched by the magnitude of the work at hand. “We are helpless in providing immediate relief to the people as we have been attending to the calls one by one. We have come across huge uprooted trees lying on the roads and houses and the equipment at hand is simply inadequate to get the trees cleared,” he said.
In fact, Fire Officer Gill de Souza along with the firemen and labourers had to rush to Sirvodem-Margao on Monday evening as three trees, including two banyan trees, all came crashing down on the road at one time.
“We could attend to this particular call only in the evening as the force was pre-occupied with other calls. But other than cutting branches, we could not do much since it required the services of expert cutters to clear the trees,” he said.
Sources said expert cutters, who offered their services to the fire brigade, are believed to have demanded amounts to the tune of Rs 80,000 and Rs 75,000 to cut the trees. “Our personnel are totally exhausted. They have been literally on their toes since Sunday. While we cap our work late in the night, we did attend to emergency during the late hours. We only hope the weather Gods are kind to us,” remarked a fire officer.
