Blaze eats up DPWH office

A BLAZE burned a two-storey office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) 7 last night near the pier area in Cebu City.

The fire reportedly started at 6:30 p.m. on the second floor of the building along McArthur Blvd., Barangay Tinago, near Pier 3.

As of press time, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 7 was still consolidating the estimated damage that the fire caused. The fire was classified as a “task force alpha” but was declared under control after 20 minutes.

PO3 Lowel Opolenticima said the cause will still be investigated, but electrical misuse is one possibility.

Ariel Flores, a security guard of the DPWH office, said that at 5 p.m. yesterday, after the employees went home, he checked each room in the office and turned off all the electrical appliances.

An hour later, he noticed smoke coming from the ceiling on the second floor. He went to get a fire extinguisher, but the fire already spread through the whole office by the time he got back.

“Posible gyud to na tungod sa kuryente kay wala may laing hinungdan (It’s likely that the fire had something to do with the power supply),” said Flores in a radio report.

All fire trucks in Cebu City and those of neighboring cities responded to the alarm.

Barangay fire brigade volunteers also helped put out the fire.

Opolenticima said the building is also old and was quickly gutted. But the flames didn’t spread to the nearby building because of a thick firewall.