the goan I network
PANAJI
If there is any department which is overworked during the monsoon, it is the fire department. Last monsoon season -- June to September -- the department lived up to its billing by attending to 2,336 emergency calls (non-fire related) and saving property worth around Rs 3.71 crore.
Normally, in the non-monsoon months the fire department receives around 100 to 200 non-fire related calls, but in the monsoon months the calls go up to around 900 (each month). In the four months of the monsoon season, Goa suffered a loss of around Rs 1.48 crore due to excessive rain, falling of trees on houses, electrical wire-poles and house collapse.
There were as many as 1,791 tree falling cases recorded in the state in four months of the monsoon season in 2018. In the month of June and July majority of tree falling, around 1367 cases to be precise, occurred.
Around 455 structures were damaged due to falling of trees which included damage to 24 religious structures.
There were 287 incidents of electrical wire getting damaged due to falling of trees in the monsoon months.
At around 886 places, the roads were blocked due to falling of trees. These were cleared by the fire personnel. The personnel attended to 10 flooding situations, while 21 landslide incidents were reported in this period. There were 15 houses that collapsed last monsoon.
There were around 24 drowning cases that occurred in the last monsoon season which were reported with the fire department. Road accident cases also increased in the monsoon season due to slippery roads, mud and rumblers. In July, the fire department received as many as 102 calls from Ponda alone.
