Fire in Cagayan destroys local police’s lone rescue boat

MANILA, Philippines – A fifteen-minute blaze last Monday, cost a provincial police station in Cagayan roughly P450,000, police reported on Wednesday.

Cagayan provincial police director Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca said that the fire, which started from an unattended ‘coal-fed cooking burner’ at the Solana police station’s kitchen at around 11:20 p.m., also damaged the police station’s lone rubber boat.

Chief of the Solana police station Chief Inspector Gabriel Mukay said the fire was put out quickly, after 15 minutes, as their office was located just beside a fire station.  But the rubber boat was “totally damaged” during the fire, he said.

Mukay said that the local government office in Solana now needs another rubber to assist residents in the community during an emergency.