Farmer burned alive in Tadian; 4 Philex workers, man killed in Itogon fire

Sagada mountains afire; destroyed water pipes causes water shortage 

By PNA and Gina Dizon

A TOTAL of five persons died after a forest fire broke past noon Wednesday in the mining town of Itogon, Benguet, even as a farmer was burned and died in a forest in Tadian, Mountain Province while fire also razed mountains in Sagada, Mountain Province destroying pipes leading to water shortage in the tourist town.

In Itogon, police report said responding personnel of Philex Fire Department found the four killed employees of Philex Forestry namely: Dante Molina, Noel Degiyem, Marlon Guiniguin, and Dexter Labasan and one resident identified as Leon Mocate.

All died allegedly due to suffocation and burned beyond recognition.

Itogon Mayor Victorio Palangdan said the blaze started here at Sitio Sal-angan, Barangay Ampucao a little past 12 p.m.

He said town police only informed him of the forest fire around 4 p.m.

Palangdan said responders and firefighters from Philex Mining Corporation, Bureau of Fire Protection and police immediately arrived at the area.

They also made fire breaks to prevent it from reaching Sitio Banawel, a residential area, the mayor said.

Palangdan said the victims’ bodies were brought to the Philex Santo Niño hospital.

“Nobody knows how they died, why they were there because there are no houses there. It is plain mountain area without residents,” he said.

In a text message, lawyer Ed Aratas, legal manager of Philex Mining Corporation-Benguet, said three of those who died were their forestry employees.

He, however, said with the bodies badly burned, they needed to do further tests to identify who among the five are their workers.

Aratas added firefighters and responders, who belong to the incident prevention and investigation committee were helping prevent the fire from spreading and reaching other facilities of the mining company.

At press time, the fire was spreading around mountainsides and towards Saint Louis High School- Philex Mines in this town.

Firemen from Itogon and Tuba town with volunteers were still trying to suppress the fire that gutted around 5-6 hectares of grassland and destroyed undetermined number of trees within Ampucao.

Police investigation disclosed the fire emanated at Sitio Sal-angan, when an unidentified person set on fire the area he wanted to cultivate for farming purposes, locally called kaingin by burning plants and trees.  

The area destroyed by the fire is part of the forestry site of company, he said.

Farmer burned in Tadian

In Tadian, Mountain Province, an 80-year-old farmer reported earlier as missing was found dead, his body burned at a forested area Monday.

Police are investigating if there was foul play involved saying it was around 9 p.m. that day that vice mayor Alfonso Polan reported to police that a certain Delfin Kiing Carias of Poblacion was missing.

Police and fire personnel including concerned residents immediately searched the kaingin of a said missing person located at Mount Am-o, Poblacion.

Around 10:45 p.m., searchers found the burned body of Carias adjacent to his makeshift shanty. Interview with his wife Natty revealed the victim informed her that he will go to their garden located at said place to clean and burn dried weeds.

Around 12 p.m. when Nattay was at Poblacion, she noticed smoke and fire at the forested area near their garden that prompted her to proceed to said place see if her husband was there.

At their kaingin, she came upon the cell phone and packed lunch of her husband still intact in a bag inside the shanty.

She tried to put out the fire while looking for her husband but she didn’t find him, so she decided to return home thinking that her husband might have gone home.

Since it was getting dark and her husband was not home yet, she sought assistance of responders.

The victim was found dead and burned near the shanty at their kaingin. The cadaver was brought home to the Carias residence.

Sagada mountains razed

In Sagada, Mountain Province, some 20 hectares of pine tree land located in different sites of this town have been hit in 10 incidents of mountain fires the past two weeks of February.

Fires burned water hoses that lead to one of the barangays here with a number of inns and homestays apart from households at barangay Dagdag.

Fire Protection Officer Jet Gewan of the Bureau of Fire Protection here appealed to the community to protect and not burn the forests considering the damage it does to trees and water that people need including threats to life and destruction of structures located in mountains.

The BFP here composed of only four personnel had to make do with their number trying to put off the fire at sitio Dalalag, Pakad and Danonoy last week.

Some four hectares of bush, young trees, old leaves and ferns were burned here at sitios Pakad, Dalalag and Danonoy the past week. Some 10 water hoses were also burned.

The water hoses lead to clustered sites and distributed to a number of households, inns and homestays at barangay Dagdag.  There are some 200 households in this barangay mostly dependent on water that pass at Danonoy and Pakad.

Danonoy and Pakad were first burned February 10 followed by two more recent fires resulting to lack of water in this part of the town. Due to this, some households bought water from water deliveries. Some households have to control their remaining stored water.

Gewan said the cause of fire was seemingly intentional at Pakad, Danonoy and Dalalag.

BFP personnel with their limited personnel and fire truck tried to put off the fire in sites where the forests were burning.

Gewan urged barangay officials to help in preventing forest fires.    

Assistant Supervisor Forester Christopher Bosaing of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) said five forest rangers are assigned per municipality of Mountain Province.

Five forest rangers however are not enough with the wideness of mountains in Mountain Province.

For the past two weeks in different dates, fires hit some five hectares of mountains at sitio Langtiw above Sumaguing Cave.  Fire extended to sitio Kanip-aw. Cause of fire is believed to be accidental.

At sitio Gagab-an in Ambasing, some 200 square meters of pine land were also burned due to children playing with fire as some people in the vicinity claimed.

At Antadao barangay, some 300 square meters of pine land was razed to the ground due to unattended kaingin burning, Gewan said. Though another mountain below the high school building was burned.

Gewan said the cause of fire is under investigation.     

Poblacion Patay barangay captain Dennis Lopez said he shall soon call for a barangay meeting to address mountain fires. Lopez’s alnus and coffee trees were also burned at Pakad.

Netizen Samsin Longid from Sagada noted that people in the olden days came out to put off fires and the culprit penalized with a pig.

Netizen Eric Urban noted that people in olden days use cogon houses. Must have something to do with this so they immediately go out to put off forest fires, he said.  Otherwise, ownership and management is another.

Sagada resident Mary Umaming noted that people don’t come out to put off mountain fires now because of the perception that they don’t own the forests. Mountains especially in the central part of town are privatized.

Whatever perception people have in not going out to put off forest fires still puts them at a disadvantage because water does not reach their homes with water hoses burned and water lessened due to faster evaporation during summer heat.

This aside from plants and trees burned.

Houses are threatened of being hit with fire as structures are now being built in mountains due to congestion in residential areas.

Forest fires usually come in raging infernos after years when debris has accumulated.  That time is now when forest fires were not that prevalent in previous years, Bosaing said.