Firefighters alarm over number of fires in 2 weeks

CEBU, Philippines —  There were now a total of 15 fire incidents in Cebu City that coat at least P52 million worth of damages of properties since the beginning March which is annually observed as Fire Prevention Month.

This is according to records at the Cebu City Fire Office from March 1 until March 17. The total damages of properties in all of these fire incidents also reached to P52,299,500.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Wendell Villanueva, information officer at CCFO, assessed the records as alarming since the damages of properties were huge enough considering that it still half of the month.

“Nagkasaka jud atong mga sunog, dinagko pa jud siya, so recent nato is katong sa Mambaling nga mitala og 28 million nga danyos, nya gisundan sa Barrio Luz, although very minimal, mao nay ika-kinse,” said Villaueva.

According to Villanueva, the most common cause of fire of these incidents was electrical misuse. He added that the electrical issues could be still possible brought by the damage left by the onslaught of Typhoon Odette.

After the typhoon hit, the whole Cebu City was among those areas that also experienced a total blackout. When the power supply was restored, some of the damages of the electricity weren’t checked and caused several fire incidents since then.

In comparison to last year’s fire incidents for the whole month of March, there were only 17 incidents recorded with a lesser cost of damages of properties than with this year’s P52 million with only 15 fire incidents within just half of the month.

The most recent fire incident which involved a warehouse in Barangay Mambaling last Thursday was initially assessed to have been caused by the batteries stored inside the building that might have leaked and sparked fire.

“Grabe ka isog ang aso then nag-emit siyag poisonous na gas, katong battery,” said Villanueva.

Initial investigation further revealed that the batteries stored inside the warehouse contained degraded lithium-ion in which the said poisonous gas might come from.

Villanueva said this is the angle that investigators are looking at.

“Pwerte kunong daghana gyud, nya over the years, siguro naka pile ra didto,” said Villanueva.

He added that investigators are still conducting in-depth investigation to further look into what could be the cause of fire inside the warehouse involved. Aside from this, investigators are also looking in the most common cause which is electrical misuse.

It was reported that the said fire has been battled by the firefighters in less than 24 hours since the fire broke out until it was declared fire out.

Furthermore, as the dry season has been officially declared in the country, Villanueva has reminded the public to be extra cautious with handling the household that might cause a fire.

“Kay sa ka init posible nga uga atong mga kabtangan, tanan, ma-balay, sa gamay lang na spark, maka mugna na diay og kayo, unya dali ra kaayo ni mosilaob…so mao ni ang panahon na sugod na ang ting-init unya, mulanat pa ni up until May, so dugang pag-amping unta sa publiko aron malikayan gyud nato ang sunog,” Villaneva appealed. — GMR (FREEMAN)