PNHS fire will not affect NSPC hosting, say
THE hosting of the National Schools Press Conference at the Pangasinan National High School on January 29-30 will not be hampered by the fire incident that burnt two rooms of the 24-year-old Japan International Cooperative Agency (JICA) building on Monday evening.
Elvira Viray, PNHS principal, said the 90% of preparations are in place to receive some 5,000 students from elementary and high school and coaches from different schools from the 17 regions nationwide.
She said all the rooms are ready to be used as contest venue. The billeting of the delegates will be assigned to other schools as arranged by the Department of Education.
Meanwhile, Viray said the cause of the fire has not been determined by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Lingayen.
The fire broke out hours after the BFP team completed its inspection of all the classrooms.
She said she left the school at 7 p.m. and neither she nor the school guard that made the rounds didn’t notice any electrical appliance left plugged to the power conduit.
It was around 8 p.m. when the guard at the Capitol Resort, next to PNHS, noticed the fire, and immediately alerted Jomar Lobien, the school guard.
Lobien said the fire started at the ceiling of the old JICA building.
Fire Marshal Richard Santillan of the BFP Lingayen said he alerted nearby fire stations soon as he received the fire report from Lobien.
Five fire trucks arrived from Lingayen, Bugallon, Binamaley, Dagupan and Panda Dagupan.
BFP declared fire-out around 8:40 p.m.
Initially, investigators suspected arson after they found a partially burned piece of wood just a few meters away from the burnt building but this was eventually ruled out.
Faulty electrical wiring as the cause of the fire is still being ascertained but even that possibility is being ruled out. (Nora Dominguez)
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