Tourism dept loses Rs 5 lakh in Pernem blaze

Mapusa: Property worth Rs 5 lakh, including junked vehicles and speedboats stationed at the Goa Tourism Development Corporation's (GTDC) property at Malpem in Pernem, were destroyed in a fire that raged for about three hours on Saturday afternoon. Sources said that property worth about Rs 50 lakh was saved by the Pernem and Mapusa fire and emergency crew.
Seventeen small fibre boats and speed boats and five vehicles were gutted.

The property along NH 17 at Malpem, once run as hotel and presently lying unused and idle, was being used by the tourism department to park its junked vehicles and boats, sources said. In all, over 50 four wheelers, and a variety of boats were kept there.

The fire broke out in wood piles stacked nearby at about 11am from where it spread to the GTDC property and it was 2pm by the time the situation was brought under control, Malpem panch member Shailendra Parab said.

Sources said that the highway in this stretch is being widened and that trees and bushes that had been cut as part of the works had been dumped in the area.

Parab demanded discarding of scrapped vehicles in the property be stopped.

Malpem sarpanch Bharat Gawade alleged that the fire tender from the Pernem station failed to tame the fire quickly as they were ill-equipped and inefficient. Locals said that as the fire tender from the Pernem was emptied within half-an-hour and that fire tenders from the Mapusa fire station had to be called in.

Other vehicles in the vicinity were salvaged with the assistance of locals.