Fire engulfs the office of the regional director at the second level of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) office at the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City at 12:18 a.m. of Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. |CDND Photo/Raul Tabanao
(Third update)
CEBU CITY, Philippines– Fire authorities are looking at faulty wiring as the possible trigger to the fire that destroyed the office of the regional director at the second level of the Land Transportation Office and Regulatory Board in Central Visayas (LTFRB-7) building located at Jose L. Briones St., North Reclamation Area, Cebu City pre-dawn on Sunday, October 27, 2019.
Senior Fire Officer 2 Hermes Molina, of the Cebu City Fire Department, told reporters that they are still determining what exactly caused the fire since they did not find any unattended devices plugged in during their preliminary investigation.
However, Molina said there’s a possibility that an “electrical ignition” or a faulty wiring may have started the fire that broke out at 12:18 a.m. raged for nearly an hour before it was completely put out at 1:16 a.m.
The fire damaged the office of LTFRB-7 Director Eduardo Montealto Jr., which was estimated to cost at least P150,000.
Montealto, who is currently in Bicol Region on official business, has earlier told CDN Digital by phone that they will have to suspend his office’s operation until they find a new office.
Read more: Fire-hit LTFRB-7 to suspend operation — Montealto
Molina, however, said only the office of the director was destroyed by the fire.
No one was reported injured during the incident.
Based on the account of LTFRB-7 building security guard Ariel Husayan, Molina said that the guard just came out from desk area at the ground level when he saw that the fire at the second floor was getting bigger.
Based on the claims of Husayan, he was able to to report the incident around 12:18 a.m. which was immediately responded by the Mabolo fire department and was immediately raised to a second alarm at around 12:30.
The fire was put under control at 1:08 a.m. and was declared fire out by 1:16 a.m. /elb