Abellera, who was in the City Council building when the fire broke out around 9:25 a.m., said it started from the ceiling of the comfort room. It was, however, easily extinguished by the council's security personnel and the fire marshalls of the C. Bangoy Fire Station who came within minutes.
Abellera and Fire Marshall Freddie Pasaquin conducted an initial investigation after the incident and found out that the source of fire was a can full of sawdust (bagaso) up on the ceiling.
Also found were 4 soft brooms, 3 pails, cellophane bags, 2 pieces of lighted match sticks, a dust pan, 2 plastic bottles of soft drinks and a plastic jar.
"According to Mr. Pasaquin, the discovery of the two match sticks together with the can of sawdust would trigger the possibility that such fire incident was intentional and an evil-motivated act with a purposed of causing harm and panic," Abellera said.
Abellera said he also asked Pasaquin if faulty wiring could have possibly started the fire, to which the latter negated.
He added that further inquiry on the incident would be conducted together with the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).
