Panaji: A major disaster was averted by the
fire brigade
personnel on Tuesday after two
LPG cylinders
exploded inside a temporary hutment site inhabited by construction workers at
Bambolim
.
Around 12
huts
, attached to each other, were gutted in the fire.
No casualties were reported and the losses from the blaze were estimated to be about Rs 40,000.
In another case, a fire broke out at a footwear showroom at Osia Shopping Complex, Margao, in the wee hours of Tuesday.
The goods inside the shop were destroyed.
Firefighters doused the flames. A short circuit is suspected to have triggered the fire.
The owner of the shop said that he sustained a considerable loss.
As for Bambolim, the fire and emergency services received a call at 10.44am about the cylinder
explosions
.
The firefighters removed three other filled LPG cylinders lying at the site to mitigate risks while dousing the flames.
The 140-odd tinned huts, each around 5 metres wide, posed accessibility hurdles to the firefighters. The tinned sheets had to be removed to make way for the firefighters to douse the blaze. More than 300 people stayed at the site.
It took almost an hour to extinguish the fire. Two fire tenders were dispatched — from the Panaji fire station and the fire services headquarters. The tenders were placed on either side of the flaming area.
“If the fire had broken out at night, it would have surely proven fatal for those living inside the small huts as almost every hut had an LPG cylinder,” said station fire officer Rupesh Sawant.
It is unclear why the explosions occurred. The
fire department
has written to the electricity department and has advised against allowing settlements where huts are all attached. A gap between each hut has been recommended.
The fire department personnel urged people not to use wooden separators because these can prove lethal at the time of a fire. The personnel also warned people against creating a panic situation by running helter-skelter, which could lead to a stampede when a fire breaks out.
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