A massive fire erupted at the Visakhapatnam Fishing Harbour around midnight on Sunday, November 19, damaging around 25 to 30 boats. However, no loss of life was reported. While police are investigating the cause of the fire, Visakhapatnam Commissioner of Police Ravi Shankar said that the fire started on one boat where a few people were possibly “partying” at night. While the fire department, police, industries department and Navy personnel came together to bring the fire under control, the property damage runs into crores of rupees as each boat is worth around Rs 15 lakh.
“After the boat parked in fishing jetty zero caught fire…one of the boatmen de-anchored it and let it off into the sea, but since the boat had a full tank of diesel and a gas cylinder, the fire had a multiplier effect and spread to other boats parked at the jetty towards a corner. The exact cause is being probed. We will constitute a team of experts from the fire, police and other departments and delve into the root cause of the incident,” the Commissioner said.
Another police officer said that there were several secondary blasts in the fire, as many of the boats contained gas cylinders which the fisherfolk use to cook food.
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P Simhachalam, a fire department official who had reached the spot, told TNM that 14 fire engines were sent to douse the fire, which took nearly five hours to bring under control. “The diesel cans and gas cylinders on board intensified the fire.” He added that the fisherfolk were in shock and were not in a position to speak. “The people who were present were unable to answer clearly and we were unable to conclude the cause of the fire. We do not know if there was any catch on these boats,” he said.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy expressed anguish over the fire and directed officials to provide relief to the affected fisherfolk. The Chief Minister also asked the officials to conduct a thorough probe to find out the cause of the fire. He directed fisheries minister Seedari Appala Raju to visit the accident site, supervise the relief operations, and offer support to the fisherfolk who lost their boats.