MARGAO
Fire broke out again at the Margao Municipal Council’s garbage dump near the KTC bus stand on Tuesday noon.
Till late evening, the Margao Fire brigade was continuously engaged in the firefighting operations to bring the fire and smoke under fire.
Thousands of litres of water were sprayed on the dry waste dump by the fire brigade, as the fire brigade roped in three tenders in the firefighting operations. Margao Municipal Chairperson Damu Shirodkar along with Municipal officials rushed to the site to take stock of the situation.
Fire officials, however, pointed out that the delay by the Margao Municipality to supply mud and debris to cap the fire delayed in bringing the fire under control.
“To bring fire to a garbage dump under control, what is required is mud and less water. We have used thousands of litres of water to bring the fire and smoke under control, but in vain”, a firemen pointed out that unless the MMC supplies the mud, it would take hours to bring the fire under control.
Another firemen pointed out that repeated fires to the waste dump results in a huge wastage of tax payers money as the fire brigade is called to douse the fire. “Wastage of water during the summer, besides fuel is caused when the fire tenders are called to put off fires to waste dump when the solution lies in capping the site with mud”, the fire official added.
Incidentally, the same waste dump was engulfed by fire on Saturday when the city was playing host to the Shigmotsav parade. While the fire fighters were engaged in the operation, the Margao Municipal officials were busy with the Shigmotsav celebrations, delaying the operations for want of mud supply from the civic body.
