Firefighters respond to a dawn fire that razed 30 houses in Sitio Lapuk, Lower Calili, C. Padilla Street in Cebu City on February 4, 2022. | photo courtesy of CCFO (FILE PHOTO)
CEBU CITY — The Bureau of Fire Protection in Central Visayas (BFP-7) has noted a 21 percent increase in the number of fire incidents in the region from January to March 2022 as compared to the same period of last year.
From only 226 fire incidents recorded regionwide during the first quarter of 2021, the BFP 7’s Regional Operations Division logged 273 fire incidents during the first quarter of 2022.
Chief Inspector Raul Bustalino, chief of the Regional Operations Division of the BFP-7, said the leading causes of these incidents included electrical ignition caused by loosened connection, electrical ignition caused by arcing, and open flame from cooking and unattended candles.
“Kasagaran ana electrical kay labi mao man g’yod ni gigamit especially sa residential, overloading, open flame kanang mga grilling,” he said.
(Most of it are electrical [causes] because that is what residential houses are using, overloading, open flame that is when you grill.)
Based on the records of the BFP-7 Operations Division, 109 of the 273 fire incidents recorded from the first quarter of 2022 happened in January — with the first fire incident involving a mercantile establishment in Barangay Ermita in Cebu City last January 3.
Cebu, which also has the biggest population among the islands in the region, also had the most number of fire incidents from January to March 2022.
At least 60 fire incidents were recorded in Cebu City, 7 in Mandaue City, and 6 in Lapu-Lapu City.
Some of the biggest fire incidents recorded involved an industrial establishment in Talisay City and another business establishment in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City.
At least P28 million in property was destroyed when a fire broke out in a warehouse used to store noodles in Talisay City’s Barangay Cansojong at dawn last March 21, while about P39. 2 million worth of properties also went up in smoke when an afternoon fire struck a mall located in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, last January 28.
The BFP 7 record also showed that these fire incidents from January to March this year caused the death of five civilian individuals and injured 28 others.
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