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Panaji: A fire completely gutted ‘Gharan’, a restaurant located along the NH 66 in Porvorim, early Tuesday morning. No casualties were reported. While the cause of the fire was unknown and is still under investigation, the owners suspect arson.Yash Haldankar, a co-owner of the restaurant, said, “We had a dispute within the family owing to property-related issues. We believe the fire was set on purpose — as the establishment is completely safe — and have filed a complaint with the Porvorim police station. We are grateful to the fire department that contained the fire in time, and to the passer-by who called the fire station. We are fortunate no one was harmed in this incident.
”According to Damodar Pednekar, a fire officer at the Porvorim fire station, the control room received a call at 4.35am.“A passer-by called to report thick smoke fumes and a fire in the front of the restaurant. The fire tender from the station reached there in seven minutes. By the time the tenders arrived at the venue, the restaurant was engulfed in flames,” Pednekar said.Additionally, two fire tenders was requested from the Panaji fire station.
The tenders returned to their respective stations at 6.05am after dousing the blaze.Witnesses said the flames were so massive that they also charred a few branches of the trees lying adjacent to the restaurant.A cook who worked at the restaurant and lived behind it, said, “The restaurant shuts operations at 1am. We sleep near it so that we can start preparing food early in the morning. When we smelled the thick fumes, we went outside and saw the restaurant was on fire, and it spread to the plantations nearby.
We called our owners immediately, and they arrived within a few minutes.”The fire charred the front area of the restaurant, which was the dining area. The kitchen, which is located at the back, was salvaged, along with a few LPG cylinders.The loss from the fire was estimated at Rs 30 lakh. The fire department recovered assets worth Rs 5 lakh.
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