Firefighters, Corpn. squads defend against rain fury in Thiruvananthapuram

One fish worker died and nine others went missing in separate incidents off the coast of Vizhinjam

One fish worker died and nine others went missing in separate incidents off the coast of Vizhinjam in the capital on Friday. The deceased fish worker, identified as Antony (52) from Pulluvila, had gone into the sea in a fishing boat on Thursday, along with four others. According to the Vizhinjam coastal police, the boat capsized around 3 nautical miles from the Vizhinjam coast. While three of them swam to safety, one other fisher, identified as Stellus, is still missing. Another fishing boat with eight fish workers remained untraceable through the day.

Over the past few days, dangerously leaning and fallen trees as well as hoardings have been posing a problem not just to the Fire and Rescue Services personnel, but to the disaster management squad of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The civic body’s squad has over the past four days cut down or pruned the branches of over 160 trees that fell on buildings or public roads due to the unusually high speed winds that have accompanied the rains this monsoon season.

According to officials, the Corporation’s control room has been buzzing with calls regarding concerned house owners regarding trees that have already fallen or are about to fall. The calls are diverted to one of the twenty five health circles, all of which have disaster management squads, in addition to the one based at the Corporation head office. One of the squads was hard at work all through the day on Friday to bring down a precariously placed hoarding in Kesavadasapuram. Multiple cranes had to be deployed and the hoarding had to be cut into pieces to remove it.

Fire and rescue service personnel in most of the fire stations in the city have been on the field round-the-clock over the past couple of days. Over seventy cases of trees falling due to the high speed winds were reported from the Kazhakuttam section. Road blocks due to trees falling on the stretches were reported from fifteen places on Thursday night and six places on Friday in the Kazhakuttam area. Power disruptions extending to several hours were reported from many areas as the branches fell on electrical lines. The number of calls to cut down tree branches got so overwhelming that the Kazhakuttam fire station had to put out an appeal to the public to not call the forces for minor cases or for trees that do not pose immediate danger.

According to information from the district administration, a total of 144 houses in the district sustained damages in the monsoon rains and winds over the past six days, with six of the houses fully destroyed and 138 houses partially damaged. Extensive damage was reported from the Neyyattinkara taluk in which 52 houses were partially damaged and 5 houses completely destroyed.