Fire hits old Lucena school anew

LUCENA CITY –– An early morning blaze amid the heavy rain engulfed a building at the Sacred Heart College (SHC) here on Thursday.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Romulo Albacea, Lucena police chief, said in a spot report that the fire of still unknown origin broke out around 8 a.m. and was still in progress as of 8:45 a.m.

Sergeant Rosemarie Angcana, Lucena police public information officer, said local firemen and policemen rushed to the school compound along Merchan Street after receiving a report of the fire.

“They are still there at the site,” Angcana told the Inquirer in an online interview.

Netizen Gino Uy, who lives near the school site, posted a live feed of the ongoing fire on his Facebook page.

The video shows fire coming out of the windows on the second floor of the college building. Occasional explosions were also heard coming from the burning building.

On New Year’s Day (January 1) last year, a six-hour fire also broke at the SHC. The morning Mass held at the school had just ended and the churchgoers had just left the compound when the fire started.

SHC is one of the top Catholic educational institutions in Quezon province, which was established in this city in 1884 as a school for poor children.

Its main building and other edifices inside the sprawling compound located in Barangay 11 were mostly destroyed.

No one was hurt during the blaze.

ZB