Port Blair, Nov. 14: Port Blair city witnessed 02 major Fire incidents on 12.11.2023. The First incident occurred at Phoenix Bay storage godown at 1902 hrs. involving blast of Acetylene, Ferron, and LPG Cylinders, which rapidly spread to the adjacent wooden structure dwelling house.
07 Fire tenders, 01 Bouser and 01 Foam Tender from Fire Station Aberdeen, Chatham, Marine, Haddo Wharf, and Garacharma were promptly rushed to the spot and pressed into service to douse the flames.
Fire Brigade team, despite facing series of blasts, effectively conducted the Fire Fighting Operation and prevented the spread of flames to adjacent residential and commercial shops.
There was seamless Coordination amongst Fire Fighters and local police in controlling the Fire and crowd management.
In addition, support from Fire Tenders rendered by INS Utkrosh, Water Tankers from Private firm M/s MSS Water Supply, TSG Emerald Hotel, Haywizz Hotel, Fire Mitras and General Public significantly contributed to the Firefighting efforts.
While the Fire Fighting operation was still underway at Pheonix Bay, another Major Fire call was received in the Control Room at 09.15 PM, wherein it was found that Fire had engulfed the Commercial shops at Dairy Farm junction involving Paint Shop, Flour Mill, and Old Furniture godown.
Swift action was taken by the Fire Officials and 03 Fire Service Water Tenders along with 01 INS Utkrosh Water Tender were diverted from the Phoenix Bay, Fire Incident spot.
The blaze had got intensified due to the presence of flammable/combustible materials in the shops.
To suppress the Fire, Foam was applied in addition to Water and the situation was brought under control by 10:30 PM. Cooling process was initiated thereafter and by midnight, the fire was completely contained.
Fire in both the incidents had escalated rapidly due to the presence of flammable gases/combustible material in the shops.
The Fire brigade team in collaboration with local police and AN Command, managed to douse the flames and controlled the spread of fire to adjacent buildings.
01 Residential house, 01 Cottage cum residence, and few commercial shops were completely gutted and partial damage occurred to adjacent building. The assessment of damage is being done.
The successful Firefighting operation was conducted by Inspector Fire Brigade Jagdish Varma, Shri Sandeep Lamba, DANIPS, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Fire), Shri. Kalaivanan R, IPS (SP/District South Andaman) under the supervision of Smti Varsha Sharma, IPS Senior Superintendent of Police (Fire). The overall operation was supervised by Smt. Monika Bhardwaj, IPS, DIGP (L&O).
All the senior officers were on ground to personally supervise. General public has widely appreciated the herculean efforts of all Fire Fighters and local police staff, who were involved in the fire fighting.