ILOILO City – The national office of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) would take over the investigation of the fire that gutted Gaisano Grand Mall in San Jose, Antique on Thursday last week.
BFP-6 director, Jail Senior Superintendent Jerry Candido, said three to four personnel from the national headquarters are arriving on June 28 .
The damage on the building alone reached to P833,137,500.
The gutted mall is currently off limits to anyone.
The BFP is also waiting for the Gaisano management t release an estimate on the damaged goods inside the mall.
“We could not yet ascertain the cause of fire. We will wait for the investigators,” Candido said.
Smoke was seen from the ceiling of the second floor at 5:40 p.m., then fire quickly spread.
Fire Officer 3 Lee Altobar, arson investigator of the San Jose Municipal Fire Station, said it took them 42 hours to declare a “fire out”.
The management of Gaisano Grand Mall also issued an official statement on June 18.
“In the afternoon of June 17, 2021, our Gaisano Grand Antique Branch unexpectedly caught fire. Thankfully the building was safely evacuated and no one was hurt. We are grateful to the BFP not only of San Jose but also neighboring towns and all over the province who came to help in putting out the fire,” part of the statement read.
It added: “We would like to express our profound appreciation to Mayor Elmer and his team, the traffic personnel, the police and the officials of the province of Antique. The community automatically came together to help. We cannot thank you enough.”/PN
