BFP-12 probes market fire

COTABATO CITY --- The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)-12  started last May 23 a deeper probe into the fire that razed this city's public market shortly before midnight of Monday last week.

The BFP-12 investigation was prompted by Mayor Frances Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi's request for the agency  to look into all angles regarding the origin of the fire, including the probability of arson.

At about 11:30 p.m. last May 21, the alarm was raised following a massive fire that engulfed the two-storey city public market building, which has close to 1,500 stalls. More than a dozen fire trucks from this city and nearby towns responded to the fire incident that was contained some four hours later.

The city fire department, in a preliminary assessment, has pegged the damage to business properties at P50 million, excluding the destroyed P45 million market building, which was constructed in 1993.

“A fire of such magnitude is delegated to the BFP-12 for investigation and we would assist them on that,” Fire Officer 2 Aldrin Narra, city fire department spokesman, said.

Narra said initial investigation conducted by city fire investigators revealed that the fire was caused by a faulty electrical connection from a cafeteria near the meat section of the market.

He said based on the accounts of the market's security personnel, the fire from Benz cafeteria, which is situated just below the stairs leading to the second floor of the market building, quickly spread to the upper floor where second-hand clothing stalls were located.

City Administrator Dr. Danda Juanday, in a separate interview, said the BFP-12 probe team asked for two days to complete their investigation.

“The result of their investigation is necessary for us at the city government to study our next move on the problem,” Juanday said.

At the same time, he said city structural engineers were also given two days to finish their evaluation on the over-all condition of the damaged building.

Juanday said all roads leading to the market site are temporary closed as vendors, mostly selling meat, fruits and vegetable products, have temporarily occupied the passageways to sell their products to market-goers. (Noel Punzalan, PNA - Cotabato)