The huge fire ball that lit the sky over the Naqueri-Betul plateau late Thursday night after fire gutted around 14.5 tonnes of gunpowder stored on the plateau.
Photo Credits: Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
As a fire ball lit the dark sky on Thursday night, panic stricken residents of Naqueri-Betul rushed out of their homes not knowing what was happening in their immediate vicinity.
Similarly, people from far away Margao and surrounding areas, including Cuncolim were left to wonder over reasons behind the bright sky late night.
Various theories did the rounds late Thursday night over the bright sky, with many suspecting whether a fighter plane has crashed on the plateau. Locals rushed out of their homes in panic as the loud sound shook their houses.
It was only later that realisation dawned on the residents that around 14.5 tonnes of propellant which was stored in magazine No. 1, is destroyed in a major fire. Though the company has not yet given details of the loss and destruction, sources say the loss could be in the region of around Rs 5.5 crore.
In fact, local residents fanned out to various places on the Naqueri plateau just to find out the reasons behind the explosion and the bright sky, only to later find that the gunpowder storage has been engulfed by fire.
Fishermen and boat owners, who were holed up at the Cutbona fishing jetty late Thursday night, could see a bright light illuminating the sky. Boat owner Cyprian Cardozo informed that he first thought that something has crashed near the Betul lighthouse. “Out of curiosity, I and two other persons started our bikes and rushed to the Baradi hillock, but could not find anything. So we headed to the Naqueri plateau, but there too we could not come across any crash or untoward incident,” he said.
Cyprian said that his friends have clicked photographs of the bright sky from the Margao flyover on Thursday night.
