Daijiworld News Network - Goa

Exclusive pics and report by Rajtilak Naik from Kundaim
Additional inputs from Sanjay Borkar from Margao

Kundaim, Goa (Saturday, 5-30 am IST): A major fire broke out in the Berger Paints Factory in the Kundaim industrail estate resulting in loss to property worth in crores. However, no casualties have been reported.

The Goa fire and emergency services department worked heart and soul in controlling the major fire. The exact cause of this mishap is yet to be ascertained but sources say that it could have folloed an electrical short circuit.

Except for Vasco and Pernem fire cells, almost all the fire office cells in the state were involved in controlling this fire, and to give a helping hand the Indian Navy fire brigades also joined in the act in the later phase of the fire control operation.

The exact loss is yet to be estimated because it will certainly be in crores of rupees as the machinery, ready products and raw material were all gutted in the accident.

Sanjay Borkar adds from Margao

When the ‘Berger Paints India Pvt. Ltd’ factory situated at Kundaim Industrial Estate, 33 Km from here suddenly caught fire during working hours on Friday morning, all the workers were busy in paint production.

According to the employer of the company and the eyewitness Ajay Shetty, who was in the loading department, he saw a colleague opening a barrel of some chemical. As soon as the contents came into contact with the atmosphere, it burst and caused a fire. But no casualties were reported as all the workers ran outside the company when the alarm was sounded.

Also all the other company workers were told to leave the premises and vacate the area as the massive fire threatened to spread to other units in the industrial estate.

When this correspondent tried to find out the facts from the workers, another worker said that it was because of a short circuit that the fire was caused. When asked a short circuit could spark off a mammoth fire, he said while filling the paint in the containers placed on the machinery some paint might have fallen down on the machine and also on the floor. The short circuit occurred on the machine itself, and the paint and some chemical caught fire. This left the entire premises in ashes.

Two shaded enclosures of the company which were used for production and storage of paints have been destroyed in the frie.

Company staff used the fire extinguishesr initially, but in vain because of the intense and rapid fire. As there is no fire station in the Industrial Estate it took around 25 minutes for Ponda fire service, 14 from here, to reach the spot. By that time all the material and machines were razed down in the rage of flames.

Director of Fire and Emergency Services P K John rushed to the spot and called for fire services from Margao, Valpoi, Curchorem and other places of Goa.

Officially, no cause for the fire is yet known. "After investigating the case we would be able to reveal the cause of the fire and total loss of the same, but it must be in millions," said John in response to a question from this correspondent.