Quotes For Posterity: University of Baguio (UB) Fire
On February 19, 2008, three (3) days after the 3rd fire in 19 years destroyed 3 buildings at the University of Baguio compound, The Baguio Fire Department, in a news statement:
“Fire investigator Bartolome Cacamo said they would explore all angles to determine the cause of the fire, including reports that it was started deliberately.
As far as the UB administration’s compliance with fire safety standards is concerned, Cacamo said all buildings of the university met the requirements.“
On 27 February, 2008, Mayor Peter Rey Bautista says Baguio can handle disasters, citing the fire that burned 3 buildings in the private school that the his family owns, the University of Baguio.
‘The razing of the University of Baguio (UB) high school building last February 16 was a test of the city’s capability of handling emergency situations of such magnitude.
‘And the city passed the test,’ Baguio City Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. said.
Initial investigation by the BFP revealed the fire was due to faulty electrical wiring.”
Baguio Insider asks:
1. About the first news article: what ‘requirements?’
> were there sprinkler systems installed? if so, did they work?
> did the buildings have a smoke detector and a fire alarm?
A comment we received in a previous post says:
“Lisa, the post mentioned that the sprinkler system in the AMS and FB towers of the University of Baguio we’re not automated.
I beg to disagree. Trust me, they we’re not even functional! Plus, not a sign of a single smoke detector!”
> were there enough fire extinguishers to put out what was probably an electrical fire?
> how were they able to determine the satisfactory compliance by the University of Baguio with their ‘requirements’ in just two days between the fire (feb 16) before they made the statement on feb 19?
> if the requirements were complied with, how come the electrical fire was not put out? how come the fire damaged two more adjacent buildings?
> if the fire occurred on a schoolday with hundreds of high school students in attendance, would they have said that there were sufficient fire exits for the high school building, enough to save everybody who would have been inside?
> if the fire was determined to be caused by faulty electrical wiring, can they say that UB passed their requirements in the first place?
2. About the Baguio mayor and UB owner’s statement about Baguio ‘passing the test’:
> While I laud the Baguio community spirit for their assistance during the fire, it is my opinion that that disaster and that much damage was avoidable and preventable had UB exercised more diligence in the making the buildings safe for their tens of thousands of students. Why would UB want to test the city in that manner? Ano yun, ’surprise’ exam?
> Why would UB risk the lives of all the students, and everybody in the compound, by not providing fire prevention and safety equipment?
> What if the fire claimed even just one life, would he be saying the same thing?
> If that were not YOUR school, Mr. Bautista, as Baguio mayor, would you not instead have been calling for an investigation into the fire and the buildings’ safety?
With the Baguio mayor being the building and business owner, with the Baguio Vice-Mayor being UB’s chief of legal affairs and dean of law school, with the Fire Department and City Engineer’s Office under their direct control, can anybody reasonably expect that there will be a credible, impartial, independent investigation into the University of Baguio (UB) fire that happens to be a matter of public interest and public safety?
Many lowlanders actually think that the University of Baguio is owned by the City of Baguio (much like Lyceum ng Maynila is owned by the City of Manila). They do not know that UB is a private school.
Does Baguio realize by now that during the 2007 elections, we actually elected University of Baguio to run Baguio City instead?
“> did the buildings have a smoke detector and a fire alarm?”
Even if there are fire alarms, where are they linked to?
The fire alarms are only good if there is someone monitoring the system and has the ability to contact the fire department so that they can respond. Is there a private company that monitors fire alarms 24/7 there?
“Does Baguio realize by now that during the 2007 elections, we actually elected University of Baguio to run Baguio City instead?”
Now that you have pointed it out, I realize that it’s a scary thought indeed.
Lisa,
Thanks for posting the youtube film clip. It gives a perspective of the gravity of the incident.
Fire is one of property’s worst enemies and no one ever wants to be a victim of it. As such, extreme precautions are taken to protect life and property. For a fire of such similar magnitude to occur, it is clear that preventive and immediate measures did not work.
To say that Baguio’s emergency services responded well is an understatement and missing the point and diverting the issue. That’s what they’ve been trained and are there for. It’s really all about what went wrong in the first place.
A building fire like that in broad daylight? Was someone sleeping on the job? Was something not working as it was supposed to? Why does UB keep getting hit by fires? Are they trying so set a Guinness world record?
Your site is getting so much better it’s getting to be addicting. It must be the “authentic” you at work. Congrats!
Hi Tina,
That’s right! Fire alarms should serve to WARN OCCUPANTS to vacate the building and ALERT THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. The mayor in another account laments the fact that he had to call the fire department. But if the alarm were linked, there would be no need to call.
Hello Mike,
The second video was shocking to me — how the UB students/professor took extra minutes to take the video before leaving the premises with the fire so close by — did they never hear of suffocation?
It is also apparent that there was already an emergency crew on hand early on. But if it was an electrical fire, as suspected, water serves only to make it worse.
In other places, they douse adjacent buildings to prevent them from catching fire (water damage nalang). Lucky that fire trucks were able to negotiate the UB compound labyrinth.
A classmate was surprised when I said UB was owned by the Bautistas…she was like “Hindi ba kapag ng ng place eh state Unis?? UB sghould be changed to University of Bautista!
I am not from UB but I happen to enter the building once because my friend enrolled there. They’re buildings are far more scary than the oldest buildings of SLU. Their are too crowded(like you can’t breathe just by looking at it) and aside from poor aesthetics and color combinations(don’t they have a little fashion sense?) the structure(interior and exterior) will really freak you out. Sadly, UC-BCF is heading the way of UB - buildings very close to each other.
It’s a trivia that despite UB having the most expensive tuition in the city, they can’t seem to invest generously for the safety of their REAL ’stopckholders’ aka students.
I wonder if UB had ever had a fire drill? I’ve seen SLU have their fire drills and earthquake drills and yes, kasali yung fire department at police kapag nagdridrill sila. But maybe the location of SLU made drills easier. They’re at Boni while UB is at the narrow areas of Assumption and Mabini where it is always traffic.
This is the nth time nang nadisastro ang UB, why haven’t they learned from the past. I’m also afraid that UC is heading the same or worse than UB - no decent parking lot(which makes their employees park at the sidewalks of Harrison- right at the Loading/Unloading zone and their blgs are ’suffocating’.
Janice,
I agree with your view that students are ’stockholders’ in their schools in the sense that they have invested their lives and money into an institution that is supposed to be all the wonderful things to them: a place for learning, opportunities, socialization, empowerment.
Maybe they are best referred to as stakeholders. The schools should rise and fall based on the quality of their graduates’ lives, jobs and accomplishments.
In Baguio universities, with the way they stuff tens of thousands in their tiny campuses, it does look like it’s all about the QUANTITY of graduates.
Holy cow, that’s a damn smoky kind of test for a city’s emergency response capability.
Yep, Virgo, doesn’t that statement just bug the pants off an intelligent person like you?