BAGUIO CITY – Local arson investigators theorized that there is a big possibility that the 5-hour fire that gutted Blocks 3 and 4 of the city public market was allegedly deliberately done.
Sources from the Baguio fire station who opted not to divulge their identities for personal reasons disclosed that based on the initial results of the forensic examination conducted by the national headquarters of the bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) on the samples that were sent for the said purpose, there were no doubtful chemicals or signs of short circuit on the same which will strengthen earlier suspicion from concerned citizens that the fire was allegedly deliberately done for whatever purpose.
Earlier, the Baguio fire station submitted to the BFP national headquarters samples of the pieces of evidence that were gathered by arson investigators in the various areas where the market fire could have started for the further conduct of forensic examination to ascertain the root cause of the said fire incident.
However, chemists that conducted chemical tests on the gathered pieces of evidence from the fire scene did not discover any form of doubtful chemicals that might have caused the said fire while engineers were not also able to uncover signs of short circuit on the burned electrical wires that were also submitted for further testing by the experts.
Several sources claimed that the conclusion that might be derived from the said results is that the fire might have been allegedly deliberately done although further investigation will still be conducted by arson investigators to ascertain the cause of the fire incident that gutted almost one-third of the city public market structures.
The 5-hour fire that gutted portions of the city public market in the evening of March 11, 2023 up to the wee hours of March 12, 2023 resulted in the displacement of some 1,700 vendors.
The initial estimate of damages inflicted by the fire to the public and private properties in the area was pegged to be around P40 million based on the results of the post-disaster risk assessment that was conducted for the said purpose.
On the other hand, members of the media are now questioning the Baguio fire station for its alleged refusal to provide them a copy of the aforesaid report from the BFP national headquarters when the said comment is considered to be public considering that the matter involved in the same is endowed with public interest.
The members of the media who earlier requested the Baguio fire station for a copy of the said document disclosed that they were informed by the concerned authorities that the said office is not allegedly authorized to release the same which now casts doubt on the next thing that will happen on the leaked report that the market fire incident was allegedly deliberately done by supposed interest groups and individuals.
The local media challenged the Baguio fire station to be transparent on the results of the arson investigation because the more that the same is delayed, the more that people will doubt the outcome of the investigation when there were already initial findings that were divulged by investigators of the said incident. Contributed article