Panaji: The fire services department had a rather busy 2017, responding to various fire and emergency incidents across the state. The 2017 fire services report said property worth Rs 39.28 crore was saved.
Four people succumbed in various fire-related incidents across the state.
The biggest fire that the department responded to was the one that broke out on October 2, 2017, at the Kadamba Transport Corporation bus terminal at Panaji. The loss was pegged at Rs 1.20 crore. In February 2017, an incident was reported at ICAR Krish Vigyan Kendra, Old Goa, after dry grass caught fire.
Fire staff at Curchorem attended to a fire call at a cashew plantation at Balli, Quepem, in April 2017. In another incident, a fire at a sugarcane plantation at Gawali Wada, Sanguem resulted in losses worth Rs 9.70 lakh.
In South Goa, in an incident involving a quenching oil tank at the Margao industrial estate, the fire services staff at Margao managed to save property worth over Rs 87 lakh while property worth Rs 7 lakh was destroyed. In other incidents, three shops were gutted in a fire at Santemol market in Raia. Considerable loss was also reported in a fire that engulfed two houses and two huts at Benaulim beach and one house at Sarzora.
In Bicholim, fire staff responded to a number of major fire calls including an overturned truck, a fire at the office of a petrol pump in Parye, one at the furnace of the Vedanta pig iron division in Navelim, a furnace storing scrap material near the sub-station at Sakhali, a house in Shirgao and a car near Bordem.
