BICHOLIM: Despite several reports of fire destroying cashew plantations and dry grass, the authorities in Bicholim have not done much to provide water to the hydrants in the city causing inconvenience to the fire force.
It may be stated that there are hydrants installed at several places in Bicholim but surprisingly only one hydrant has water while all others have been rendered useless. There is a hydrant installed near the Bicholim fire brigade but even this is not supplying water forcing the fire officials to hunt for water in times of emergency. This week there were two major incidents of fire where several cashew trees were gutted. About 2600 cashew trees belonging to a group of farmers from Tanavadi Vaddo, Pirna, Bardez were gutted in fire on Saturday afternoon causing them loss in lakhs of rupees. In another incident at Sarvan, Bicholim cashew plantation estimated to be around Rs 20 lakh was gutted in a fire. The fire force officials utilised three fire tenders and fought for nearly six hours to bring the fire under control. Besides this, there were several instances when dry grass was destroyed by fire. Inquiries with the fire force disclosed that even though there are several fire incidents there is only one hydrant at Housing board that supplies them water. “There are hydrants but they do not have water. The PWD and the municipality should work together and install hydrants at strategic locations and should also give water to the already existing hydrants,” Bicholim fire force officials, Shridap Gawas said. "At present we take the water from the lone hydrant at Bicholim housing board or we get it from Padosem," he added. It may be stated that recently there was fire incident in the market and the fire brigade was not even able to go inside. “There was a hydrant in the market but it was broken by someone. Now if any fire incident happens there is no hydrant in the area which can instantly supply water to the fire brigade,” said Tejas Khedekar from Bicholim.
