FIRE incidents in Davao City rose by 28 percent to 192 from January to May 2018 as compared to the same period in the previous year pegged at 150, a fire officer said.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Ramil Gillado, the Deputy Chief of the investigation section of Bureau of Fire Protection Davao said that this year's fire incident jumped which usually occurs in residential areas.

Usually, the majority of the fire incidents are caused by electrical short circuits.

This year's damages to properties amounted to P78,947,700 which is lower compared in 2017, where it reached to P583,389,975. Last year's fire damages went up due to the burning incidents of big business establishment in the city including Lapanday facility in Mandug and massive fire in New City Commercial Center (NCCC) in Maa last year.

Earlier, a small fire erupted at Gaisano Mall Toril around 10:25 p.m. on May 20 and it was declared fire out at 10:50 p.m. damaging P100,000 worth of properties which started at second floor, at the supply room of the Human Resource. No casualties were recorded.

BFP Davao has been active on their information drive and urged the public to be fire-safety conscious and be knowledgeable about fire hazards to prevent further fire incidents from occurring in the future.