PANAJI
The phones at Fire Services Control Room continued to ring non-stop on Tuesday with firefighters attending to over 46 fire-related incidents on the ‘Holi’ day when the government department “ excluding the frontline ones “ were closed.
The firemen are responding to raining calls related to fires, most of which are burning of dry grass and forests/hills. The India Meteorological Department and the Fire Department have attributed most of these fire incidents to the rise in temperature since last month.
Director of the Directorate of Fire & Emergency Services Nitin Raiker said that March 3 to March 5 was the busiest period as it received over 200 fire calls. Overall there were 1,013 fire calls from February 1 to March 7.
“The temperature has shot up and hence, fire incidents have increased. The new recruits are assisting our existing force to respond timely to the calls and effectively douse the blaze. In the last couple of days, water tenders had to be refilled to extinguish fire considering the gravity of flames,” he said, admitting that extinguishing fire in Mhadei wildlife sanctuary was a challenging task.
“We have brought the situation under control with the help of reinforcement from nearby fire stations,” Raiker added.
Each of the 15 fire stations has a minimum of two fire tenders, each having a capacity of 4-5,000 litres of water.
Of 46 fires reported on Tuesday, the highest with 10 cases was in Mapusa jurisdiction followed by six cases in Margao, Bicholim with 7 while Pernem fire station reported three cases; and the remaining stations reported either two or one case.
Goa, on Tuesday, reported 37 degree celsius max temperature with IMD forecasting a rise in temperature in the coming days too, though there no warning of a heat wave.
