Canacona: A house belonging to an elderly woman, Laxmi Komarpant of Tembewada, Canacona, was destroyed in an accidental fire on Thursday night. Laxmi was asleep when neighbours from nearby houses alerted her.Canacona fire station sub-officer Umesh Acharya said the station received a distress call from a neighbour reporting the house on fire. Acharya rushed to the spot with Leading Fire Fighter Prashant Velip, Ashok Gaonkar (driver-operator), and firemen Ganesh Joshi, Pratik Desai, and Surendra Zaranvkar. The team battled the blaze using two water tanks.Two gas cylinders were removed from the house during the operation. Velip said the situation could have been far worse if the cylinders had not been taken out.Residents said delayed call connectivity may have affected response time, as the fire station is located deep in the interior near Chapoli dam, where phone signals are weak. By the time the fire tender arrived, the house, an old structure, was almost fully gutted.Firefighters prevented the fire from spreading to adjacent houses. Acharya said property worth an estimated Rs 15 to 20 lakh was saved by protecting at least two nearby houses.All household belongings, including clothes, utensils, two cupboards, chairs, and tables, were reduced to ashes.On Friday, Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar visited the site. Acharya said the owner had not approached the fire station so far, and the exact loss could not be assessed.
