Pole blaze tops list of fire incidents in Iloilo City

ILOILO. Firemen are preparing to put out a fire on an electric post in Remonville Subdivision, Jaro, Iloilo City last January 2, 2020. (Leo Solinap)
ILOILO. Firemen are preparing to put out a fire on an electric post in Remonville Subdivision, Jaro, Iloilo City last January 2, 2020. (Leo Solinap)

THE Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Iloilo City has reported that post or pole fires topped the list of fire incidents in the city in the past two years.

Senior Fire Officer 4 Aquilino Sampiano, chief of operation of the Iloilo City Fire Station, said an average of 400 fire incidents per year have been recorded, with 408 in 2018 and 459 in 2019, respectively.

These incidents include pole fires, while others were structural, grass and vehicular fire.

Pole fires are frequent in the months of May, June and July, said Sampiano.

"This post fires happen during peak time where electricity is used," he said.

Sampiano also said that there were times when they have to respond to four fire alarms in one day.

"This fires are caused by dilapidated electrical wirings in the buildings or overloading of electricity," Sampiano said.

Asked for comment, Marcelo Cacho, Panay Electric Company (Peco) head of Public Engagement and Government Affairs, said: "It is true that the fires happened in poles that Peco owns but the incidents were brought about by other factors that are not of our doing."

"Poles cannot cause a fire and actually 97 percent of all Peco poles are cement already. The remaining three percent are being phased out based on usability and we are applying outage management so as not to burden our customers also with multiple outages," Cacho said.

He also said that contrary to the BFP report, none of the cases cited were caused by an overloaded transformer.

"And should there be an issue with the wires, we have protective devices in place to make sure power is cut to prevent damaging nearby property," he said.

Cacho said Peco has apprehended 201 persons who were caught pilfering power from November 13 to January 6 and confiscated 3.8 kilometers of illegal lines used to pilfer power.

"These personalities were caught in cooperation and with the assistance of the Iloilo City police, along with the different barangays in the city," Cacho said.

"We have weekly planned operations with the police to aid in the apprehension of electricity pilferers as it is required by the law to have an officer of the law present when apprehending pilferers," he added.

"We would like to point out that with our current protective devices in place, the lives and properties of our valued consumers were never affected in all the fire incidents related to this matter not unless the fire comes from within the consumers' structure already," Cacho said.

"Peco has been trying its best to abide by the rules and regulations of the ERC despite multiple external factors beyond our control. We communicated to the ERC that should they need further clarification on certain matters, we are very much willing to cooperate as we have been doing so consistently," he added.

A letter of Peco to the Energy Regulatory Commission last November 14, 2019 stated that on the 2017 to 2019 report, 709 post fires were recorded by BFP Iloilo, 138 of which are Peco-related.

"Considering that not all poles are owned by Peco, the remaining 571 are Telco poles," the report stated.

Short circuits on Peco poles with Telco attachments are the most common causes of pole fires. This condition occurs when a linkage is created between Telco lines or messenger wires and Peco secondary, the reports added.

Peco is the current power distributor in Iloilo and the company's rival is the Razon-owned More Electric and Power Corp., which is currently aiming to expropriate Peco's distribution assets. (SunStar Philippines)

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