BUREAU of Fire Protection (BFP)-Cordillera regional director Senior Superintendent Maria Sofia Mendoza said investigation for the Itogon fire is ongoing.
“We are still conducting investigation, even our national headquarters are directing us to conduct the investigation, and we are still on the process of conducting investigation.”
As of Wednesday, February 27, there are still no results to the cause of the fire incident last February 20 which started at the Philex Mining Corporation area. The fire killed five persons.
With the high occurrence of forest fires, Mendoza said they have coordinated with different government agencies for prevention and intervention measures.
The BFP data shows a total of 60 forest fires from January to February 27 this year compared to the 63 forest fires recorded from January to December 2018 in the whole Cordillera region with 39 grass fires noted since January of 2019.
There were 79 recorded cases of grass fires for 2018.
Over the weekend, Benguet governor Crescencio Pacalso said they have asked stakeholders to take precaution as the occurrence fire started to peak this month.
Pacalso said plans to activate the fire brigades is being mulled “We will try to pursue that, for our fire brigades to be easily activated. What we intend to do is get stipend for them to serve.”