Arson not discounted: Cops probe P100 million Baguio school noon fire

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – Arson investigators are looking into the cause of a four-hour fire that injured five persons and destroyed three buildings of the University of Baguio shortly before noon on Feb. 16. Damage to property was initially estimated at over P100 million.

As of Feb. 17, arson probers of the Baguio fire department had yet to determine the cause of the fire which reportedly started on the second floor of the UB high school building. They were looking into three possible causes of the fire — arson, faulty electrical wiring and explosion.

The UB preparatory high school and the Dap-ayan theater, were reduced to ashes, while the Fernando Bautista and Rosa Bautista buildings were heavily damaged. The fire destroyed the seven floors of the wooden structure and caused heavy damage to the nearby 10-storey Rosa Bautista building, which housed the allied and medical departments and a hotel-and-restaurant simulation laboratory.

The high school building was among the first buildings of the prestigious education institution. The fire broke out while school officials were reportedly holding consultation with the students on the proposed tuition-fee increase. Immediately, the school administration ordered all the students having Saturday classes to leave the school premises.

However, five persons, whose identities were not immediately known, were reportedly injured during the rush for safety because some of the students reportedly panicked upon learning that their building was on fire. With building made light materials like wood, the fire quickly spread to the RCB building and the nearby structure at the Dap-ayan Theater.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the firefighters allegedly ran out of water. Some 40 firetrucks from various fire stations in the city and La Trinidad, Benguet battled the fire to spare other structures in the school premises.

But a portion of the nearby Dangwa terminal was also damaged by the blaze, said to be one of the biggest fire incidents in this mountain city. The fire was the third to hit UB. A fire also gutted the old administrative building shortly after the July 16, 1990 killer earthquake. Another fire razed the science high school building and its adjacent structure near the SLU’s Sacred Heart Hospital in 2005.