Thursday, December 28, 2006 BFD 7 to look into conflicting claims on firefighters’ work
IT’S not just what caused the Capitol compound fire that investigators want to find out.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) 7 will also create a team to look into the conflict of Deputy Regional Director for Operations Aderson Comar and Cebu City Fire Marshal Esmael Codilla.
Senior Supt. Victoriano Remedio, BFP 7 regional director, told reporters yesterday that he did not want to decide until he knows what happened from both parties.
Remedio said he only received a spot report on the incident and cannot comment on whether Codilla erred in declaring the fire controlled in 15 minutes.
Media
However, he did not agree with how the two traded claims through the media.
“As officers, they should act professionally,” he said.
Codilla said that if Comar’s intention was to improve the firefighting operation, the latter should have called his attention and not made statements to the media.
“His statements were aimed at embarrassing me in public,” Codilla said. He admitted that he declared the fire under control 15 minutes after but said that it was appropriate at the time.
“Di sad nako pwede binuangan ang operation, uy. Ang involved na structures ang Provincial Government (There’s no way I would want to mishandle that operation, considering the Provincial Government’s structures are involved),” he said.
Comar, though, said he could not have called Codilla’s attention because the latter was not at the fire scene.
“In general, he’s okay. It’s just that last Tuesday, there was mismanagement on his part kay iya mang gibiyaan. Didto siya dapita may pagkulang (because he left the scene. He could have done more there),” Comar said.
Despite criticisms from a fellow BFP official, Codilla still enjoys the full confidence of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
The mayor yesterday said that as far as he is concerned, Codilla is “doing a good job.”
Warning
And if BFP 7 again tries pulling Codilla out of Cebu City, he said, “I will withdraw support for the department. I will make their lives miserable,” the mayor said.
Supt. Codilla is considered “overqualified” for his post as city fire marshal, which should be handled by a chief inspector (major) instead of a superintendent (colonel).
For his part, Capitol consultant Byron Garcia said he is “99.99 percent done” with his own investigation but is waiting for the results of the Cebu City Fire Department.
He plans to submit the results after fire investigators have reached a conclusion. He said he did not have a problem with the way the bureau was handling the investigation.
However, he said he was disappointed with how the firefighting was done. “I did not like that there was no ground commander. I had to call Colonel Comar and ask him to please supervise,” he said.
While Garcia has ruled out arson and a stray firecracker as the cause, fire investigators said they have not ruled anything out yet.
SFO1 Ali Kaseem Espinola said that they gathered ashes and debris from the fire scene and submitted these for laboratory analysis.
Espinola said they will be asking other witnesses to issue statements because there were other reports circulating that the fire began at the Cebu CFI Cooperative and not at the Civil Security Unit.
Old wires
He said their initial statement was taken from a security guard who was far from the fire scene.
Electrical wirings may have caused the fire at the Capitol compound, as the buildings “were very old,” but Garcia said the issue is not so much on what started the fire, but why it was able to spread to other buildings.
His office and two vehicles were also razed.
The Capitol consultant said it is understandable that fire investigators will consider arson, considering that the fire happened on the day the New People’s Army was celebrating its anniversary, and he has been firm against rallies and protests of “leftist groups.”
The National Bureau of Investigation will conduct a forensic analysis of samples of debris fire investigators obtained from the scene.
The analysis will reveal whether or not the fire was the result of arson, by looking for accelerants. (MEA/JPM/RHM/KNR)
