TABUK CITY, Kalinga – The St. Joseph Parish Church of the Catholic Church in Dagupan Centro here was gutted by fire on Christmas Day.
Local Bureau of Fire Prevention (BFP) fire and arson investigators believe the blaze was electrically-related although they still have to determine the specific cause.
FO2 Marlon Bautista, fire and arson investigator on the case, who attended the mass while with the shift assigned to keep watch over the church during the Simbang Gabi, recalled that the mass was interrupted when the power in the building went out twice.
Bautista said that the first which took place at around 10:10 PM delayed the mass by 15 minutes as a parishioner electrician restored the power and the second interruption which took place 10:40 PM lasted for around 10 minutes.
Bautista estimated the cost of the concrete and wooden building built in 1958 at P10M.
No one was hurt in the conflagration.
SFO1 Tito Israel, shift-in-charge, said that when they reached the church at around 1:50 AM in response to a fire call from a passerby at 1:45 AM, the building was already beyond saving as the fire had reached the flashover stage.
He said that their concern was already to save the adjoining buildings adding that they were able to put the fire under control at 5 AM.
Israel said that even if the station’s two other trucks which are under repair were available at the time, the result would have been the same due to the late fire call. He informed that a fire truck belonging to the Pasil, Kalinga fire station and the water truck of the Tabuk City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office helped them in the losing battle against the fire. **By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
