“Intense heat” from school floor jolts pupils, officials

BUENAVISTA, BOHOL, Philippines — School officials and pupils were jolted when they felt of what they described as "intense heat" emitted from the concrete flooring of the Grade 2 classroom of a school in Barangay Bonot-bonot of this town, due to yet undetermined cause.

Engineer Emoc Añora, municipal planning and development coordinator, told The Freeman in an exclusive interview about the report he received on Friday about the extreme heat that pupils described as like burning their feet.

School authorities let the school children go out of their classroom due to the "phenomenon" that occurred for the first time in the area. A firetruck was immediately dispatched there to cool off the intense heat and the classroom was doused off water, but only to dry up instantly to the shock of the firefighters.

Añora said the municipal government tried to get help from the provincial government and contacted the Bohol Environment Management Office for advice on what to do with the unexplainable incident.

BEMO officer-in-charge Sammy Racho said he tried to contact the Mines and Geo-sciences Bureau of the DENR, which personnel were here earlier to conduct geophysical assessment, but they had already left and boarded a ship back to Cebu.

Racho said there are now theories behind this phenomenon, one of which is that the place where the classroom stands might be an erstwhile open pit dump or a pig pen, which could produce methane gas that emits intense heat but no odor.

Fears also spread like wildfire due to rumors that the site might be on top of a volcano. This wild speculation got aggravated when a minor tremor shook the place at early dawn on Friday, or hours before the "intense heat" emission.

Racho however said this rumor has no basis at all, but the phenomenon needs closer investigation.

School principal Marlon Balagtas also confirmed the said intense heat emission, and that he had completely no idea on what caused it. But when they tried switching off the electricity inside the building, the heat was suddenly gone, he said.

He said he had just assumed the position of school principal recently, thus he knew nothing about the power connection inside the building, which might be installed underground and could be the cause of the intense heat. These have to be verified however, he added. (FREEMAN)