PANAJI
A government investigation into the massive fire at M/s Berger Becker Coating Pvt Ltd has ruled out foul play in the mishap, however, the report highlighted the Company’s failure to provide hands-on training to its factory workers, whose timely intervention could have prevented the fire from spreading in the premises.
The incident occurred around 2:45 pm on January 10, 2023, soon after which the Inspectorate of Factories and Boilers was directed to conduct an inspection. A report on the matter was submitted by Factories Inspector Sanjay Naik on March 18, 2023, which has now been made public after it was tabled in the ongoing session of the Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Responding to a question about industrial mishaps, Minister Mauvin Godino informed the House that the ‘catastrophic’ fire likely resulted from an electrical system failure.
“Although the probable cause of fire incident is due to failure of electrical system, the severity of damage to property, loss of government and private resources would have been less, if there was a prompt act to combat the fire at its initial stage from the workers working there. This resulted in the contravention of the provision of The Factories Act,” reads a four-page report tabled by the minister on Friday. The question was tabled by Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao.
The Factories Department also found the company guilty of failing to provide adequate training and instructions to the workers in Building 2 to handle fire emergencies.
“The Occupier (Sunil Sharma) and Manager (Rajesh Mehrotra) of the factory failed to take all practicable measures to prevent the outbreak of fire and its spread internally and externally, in contravention of Section 8 of the Factories Act, 1948,” the observations added.
Contributing to the spread of the fire was the presence of a considerable amount of flammable material in the store and warehouse of the affected building. The inventory included 4.6 tons of solvent, 399.7 tons of resin, 50.7 tons of various flammable additives, 255.6 tons of pigments with combustible properties, 438.2 tons of intermediate products, and 268.8 tons of finished products with flammable properties, reads the report.
Witness statements, as presented in the report, revealed that no attempts were made by them or the workers to combat the fire at its initial stage when it was first noticed.
“Fire fighting team of the factory used direct water as an extinguishing media of Class B type fire instead of spraying a combination of water with Aqueous Film Forming Foam, for blanketing the fire and as a result to the rapid spread of fire, further water is heavier than the flammable substance involved in this fire, hence flammable liquids spread across the premises (of the factor located in the Pilerne Industries Estate),” it added.
Reiterating that the workers were not given hands-on training to handle fires, the report also noted that the fire-fighting team sprayed water on the outer part of the warehouse without anticipating the extent of flammable materials burning inside the building.
The investigation did not find any evidence of deliberate acts or third-party involvement in the fire, leading to the conclusion that the possible cause of the fire was of electrical origin.
The factory had estimated a loss of around Rs 60 crore as the fire took about four days to be completely extinguished with the help of firefighters from six fire stations, including the headquarters.
Several lakh liters of water and other fire-dousing materials were used, and about a dozen fire engines were pressed into action in one of the major firefighting operations in an industrial unit.
