Cause of UP Diliman Faculty Center fire still undetermined—chancellor
Fire at Arts and Letters Building in UP Diliman, Quezon City. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan said on Thursday that authorities of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) are still investigating the cause of the fire that engulfed the five-decade-old Bulwagang Rizal, more known to students and alumni as the Faculty Center, last April 1.
In an update posted on the UP Diliman website, Tan said that aside from the investigation being conducted by the BFP, the university is also conducting its own probe.
READ: Fire razes UP Diliman Faculty Center building
“The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) continues to investigate the circumstances around the fire. Our previous experience is that a report can take several weeks. Meanwhile, the university itself is conducting a parallel investigation, looking mainly into compliance with several policies related to fire prevention,” Tan said.
In the said update, the chancellor also asked students and faculty members whose offices were affected by the fire to refrain from entering the building to avoid “tampering” with the building while the BFP investigation is ongoing.
READ: UP Diliman Faculty Center fire extinguished
“Unauthorized entry [to] the second and even third floors has been reported, some of which were even posted [on] Facebook, and we are alarmed by these violations. We reiterate that there are serious safety concerns here and hope the faculty and staff will be more cooperative,” he said.
Classes in the College of Arts and Letters (CAL) remain suspended until Friday, April 8.
Meanwhile, Tan said that the Office of the Campus Architect is rushing work on the pavilions which will be used by students to hold their classes. Pavillions 1 and 3 will be assigned to CAL classes while Pavilions 3 and 4 will be given to College of Social Sciences and Philiosophy.
While the UP Diliman administration has pledged computers and LCD projectors, Tan said that the UP community needs to be united in order to solve the lack of classrooms in CAL.
“The fire reminds us of the need to ‘think locally, act globally,’ the ‘global’ being UPD and UP system. One area where cooperation is urgently needed is the need for classrooms for CAL. The classroom situation is tight throughout UPD because several colleges are being renovated, but the deans are looking for possible rooms that can be lent to CAL,” he said.
Damages in the 10-hour fire were pegged at P3 million. However, UP students and faculty said that personal properties and rare books that were burned have been rendered as “incalculable” losses.
It was the third fire that hit UP Diliman campus in a span of nine months following the fires at College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association (Casaa) food center on June 13 and then the UP Alumni Center bowling alley on June 30. RAM
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