AN UNEXPECTED blackout and major fire incidents hit Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday, April 10.
The entire service area of the Cagayan de Oro Electric Power and Light Company (Cepalco) suffered from an unannounced power outage due to a technical glitch on its power line in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, Wednesday night.
Marilyn Chavez, Cepalco's assistant vice president and head of the customer and community relations department, said a power line fault in Villanueva town caused frequency fluctuation which triggered the tripping off of Cepalco's substations.
Power was interrupted around 6:30 p.m., prompting them to switch to another power source. Electricity was gradually restored in some areas after nearly an hour. Supply was brought back in other areas after another 30 minutes.
Chavez said electricity in Gusa, Baloy ang Cugman was restored after more than five hours due to suspended insulator failure.
She said the Cepalco crew had to do line patrol and check all electric posts from Gusa to Baloy to determine the problem and fix this.
"Kani sila pinakadugay nasugaan balik kay pag-attempt nato og switch on sa ilang areas mga 7:20 p.m. wala dayon makabalik (these areas were served the latest because we attempted to switch on the power around 7:20 p.m., but it was not immediately restored)," she said.
"So our crew had to poste to poste nga (go from post to another doing as) line patrol(s) to check the problem and ilang nakita nga naay (they saw a) suspended insulator nga kailangan og (that needs) replacement," Chavez said.
Chavez also said other areas experienced another power interruption after a fire incident broke out along Julio-Pacana street. She said power supply was normalized around 3:00 a.m.
On the same day, there were two separate fire incidents, damaging more than P3.6 million worth of properties.
According to District Fire Marshal Superintendent Alan Cabot of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), they received the first fire alarm around 12 noon in Vamenta, Barangay Carmen.
Cabot said only two residential houses and an eatery were damaged and there were no reports of casualties among the general public, apart from the fire station commander of Carmen, Samson Velarde, who suffered from electric shock due to a broken electric wire.
The second fire incident happened in two warehouses that contain spices and tires in Barangay Puntod. Damage to properties was estimated at P3.6 million.
Cabot said they received a call around 8:22 p.m. during the blackout. It took the fire fighters several hours to put out the fire. They declared fire out at 1:20 a.m.
The warehouses, Cabot said, were owned by Jason Ang and were rented by two businessmen.
The fire incident is still under investigation, however, Cabot said, there's a possibility that the cause of fire was electrical fault or short circuit.
"Malaki ang posibilidad na electrically motivated kasi dahil galing brownout. Pero ongoing pa rin ang investigation (There's a huge possibility that the incident is electrically motivated since it happened during a brownout. But the investigation is still ongoing)," Cabot said.
No casualties were reported.