Saturday, February 23, 2013

BFP tags school kids in Guiguinto fire



MALOLOS CITY—Young students who played with fire on school grounds caused a fire that razed three classrooms in Guiguinto Central School 10 days ago.

In a belated report, Fire Chief Inspector Christopher Lumiwes, fire marshal of Guiguinto,  said their investigation points to school children.

He said that the still unidentified school children of Guiguinto Central School played with fire at the back of the building after school hours on February 9.

The fire later gutter a Marcos-type building in the said school compound and razed classrooms for first and second grade classes.

“Initially, we thought it was another case of faulty wiring, but investigation showed there were no problem with the electrical wires,” Lumiwes said.

He said that some students saw another group of students setting on fire dried leaves and flammable garbage at the back of the school building before the incident.

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the fire that reached first alarm left at least P300,000 in damages. No one was injured.

After the fire, the BFP-Guiguinto drew stinging comments on social media after a video of the said incident was posted on Youtube.com.

Some of the comments focused on the late response, waterless fire truck and the inability of the local firemen to put out the fire.

Lumiwes explained that their fire truck had water in its tank, but the water pump failed during the incident, thus the waterless fire truck.

He also called on the local government unit to support the local firemen through procurement of additional equipment and regular repair of their existing fire truck and equipment.

Lumiwes admitted that it was their duty to prevent and put out fire, but they don’t have enough tools and their equipment needed regular repairs.

He also appealed to bickering local politicians to avoid blaming each other, and instead help improve the local BFP. Dino Balabo & Rommel Ramos

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