Field fires prompt evacuations as smoke fills homes at Caranzalem

Panaji: Agricultural fields at Caranzalem went up in flames on Monday, sending thick plumes of smoke billowing across the Camrabhat residential area and forcing authorities to evacuate a couple of buildings. The directorate of fire and emergency services spent the better part of the day fighting the blaze that refused to die out due to the wind.
Aside from the directorate of fire and emergency services, 108 ambulance paramedics also responded to the incident, offering medical assistance to the elderly.
In addition to personnel from the Panaji fire station, reinforcements were brought in from the headquarters and from the Pilerne and Porvorim fire stations as well, to attack the fire from all four sides.
“The fire spread rapidly across the field and generated a lot of smoke in the residential area. We evacuated the building and moved the residents to a safe distance. There was a 95-year-old woman who could not be shifted, so we kept a fireman with her for assistance,” said the director of DFES, Nitin Raiker.
Firemen suspect that the fire was deliberately set to create space for cultivation ahead of the monsoon. Every year, the farmers set it on fire to make the fields ready to plant paddy, said a local.
The heavy smoke from the fire at Caranzalem fields forced some residents of the vicinity, including children and the elderly, to relocate temporarily. Station fire officer Shrikrishna Parrikar rescued a small girl from a second-floor flat in a residential building at Taleigao.
“This is an every-year story. It is not an isolated incident. All the people have left their flats because the smoke has entered the house. We have elderly people in our house. We had to shift them to a cousin’s place,” said Yogesh Desai, a resident.
Stating that there has been inaction from the authorities concerned, he said, “Along with the smoke, ash and soot entered our house and covered everything.”
Many residents rushed back from work and other chores to assist the elderly living in their homes.
“Dry grass only needs a small spark for a fire to start and to thereafter spread rapidly. This being a residential area, the risk factor is higher. We moved at least 30 residents, including a 70-year-old woman,” said Raiker.
Several birds, snakes, and small mammals were charred in the fire along with the vegetables that were being grown in the field.
“The farmers must be lighting the fields on fire. Who else will do it? We face this problem every year, and we have told the panchayat to stop this,” said a resident.