AT LEAST P11.5 million worth of properties and structures were damaged by fire in the first two months of 2020 according to the Bureau of Fire Protection – Cordillera (BFP–CAR).
Fire Senior Superintendent Roderick Ramirez, BFP–CAR director, said this involves 52 structural fires that occurred from January until the first week of March.
“Most of the fire was due to unguarded cooking materials, electrical connections, lighters and lighted cigarette butts, and others, aside from recording 96 non-structural fires with 56 of this categorized as forest fires, 35 grass fires, three rubbish fires, and two agricultural fires with an aggregate value of P3.2 million,” Ramirez said.
BFP-CAR recorded an increase in residential fires from 37 cases in 2019 to 40 this year while agricultural fires increased by one.
“Although our data on forest fires are still lower at 128 cases in the first three months of 2019 as compared to only 56 cases this year which we still consider as high and during our aerial inspection, we saw the devastation which occurred in the mountains of Benguet,” Ramirez said.
BFP-CAR noted 46 accidental fires in the first three months of 2020 as compared to 15 cases last year. In 2019, 115 cases were categorized as under investigation as compared to 90 cases this year, fatalities to individuals this year was at three as compared to the seven cases in the same period last year.
“This time, we saw the extent based on damages for non-structural fires which is P17 million before but for this year is now at P11 million which is quite significant,” Ramirez added.