Navy claims to have averted fire at Dabolim airport

Panaji,July 13(UNI) The Indian Navy,controlling the Dabolim airport in Goa, has claimed to have averted a major fire mishap at the civil enclave of the airport by timely putting out flames in the private GoAir office today.

The airline office located on the first floor of the airport's administrative wing was, however, totally gutted.

"The fire was extinguished before it spread to neighbouring Indigo and Spicejet offices with the timely intervention of the fire services," airport station director B Paul Manickam told UNI.

The Naval personnel at runway and Air Traffic Control of INS Hansa airbase, who observed thick smoke on southern side of the civil airport terminal building rushed three crash fire tenders with crew besides a standby for aircraft crash fire fighting, authorities said.

The ATC immediately cleared the runway and facilitated repositioning of the Srilankan Airlines aircraft-A320 to an isolated parking bay,thereby preventing any further risk to the parked aircraft.

"It was fortunate that no aircraft landing/take off operations were in progress and the number of personnel in the airport was considerably less. Otherwise, it would have definitely turned into a major disaster," Naval authorities said.

The professionalism,dedication and prompt action displayed by the naval authorities and fire fighting personnel thus averted a major catastrophe at the civil enclave that would have left an adverse impact on the schedule of civil aircrafts from the apron and the tourists, they added.

They alerted the fire brigade on noticing smoke at about 0840 hrs.

The personnel broke open the office of the GoAir and extinquished the fire totally within an hour.

The fire brigade further broke open the adjoining rooms of Indigo and Spicejet offices and took precautionary measures to prevent fire from spreading further.

Preliminary investigations point out electric short-circuit as the cause of the mishap.

UNI