Saturday, December 08, 2007 Dawn fire razes 3 classrooms in Lapu-Lapu
A FIRE blamed to an electrical short-circuit destroyed a three-classroom building of Lapu-Lapu City Central Elementary School in Barangay Looc before dawn yesterday.
The incident was a blow to the City’s education, which the Local Governance Performance Management Committee found to have been declining because of classroom shortage for kindergarten and night high school.
SFO1 Diomed Alburo said teachers of the burnt classrooms suspect the blaze was triggered by an overheated ceiling fan, but pieces of evidence they have gathered indicate that the origin was the old wiring that connects the electrical switch to the outlet.
No injury
The blaze lasted for three minutes and property damage was placed at P500,000. Nobody was injured, though, during the effort to put it out. One of the three burnt classrooms was for kindergarten.
Alburo said they were alerted of the blaze at 3:05 a.m. and raised it to third alarm so the Mandaue City Fire Department would send help.
The City plunged in the 2006 annual performance report in education because of inadequate pre-school buildings, teachers and classrooms for night classes.
With a projected population of 275,074 for this year, the committee recommended that the problem be given a priority.
Otherwise the City will be left behind by its neighboring Mandaue and Cebu Cities.
Only 14 out of 30 barangays have pre-school centers, but some of them are privately owned and are overcrowded. The student population in night classes grew to 4,191 last year or a ratio of 58 students for every one classroom, the report said. (AIV)
