Fire officials to charge negligent fire starters

Due to the rising number of fire incidents nationwide, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said it would file criminal charges against people who would be found liable for starting fires out of negligence.

Director Ariel Barayuga, newly-appointed BFP chief, vowed to thoroughly investigate residents of the properties where fires originate before spreading to other structures or killing other people.

READ: 1 killed in QC fire as man sets room on fire just to spite wife

In a statement on Tuesday, Barayuga said the common causes of fires were unattended lighted candles or cooking stoves and careless discarding cigarette butts. Other causes were slash-and-burn farming (kaingin), firecrackers, and children who play with matches or cigarette lighters.

He said individuals, whose “utter negligence and carelessness is found to be the proximate cause of the fire” will be penalized as provided for in Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code.

Offenders face prison terms ranging from six months to six years, Barayuga stressed.

Barayuga encouraged the public to help fire investigators in identifying and prosecuting culprits.

For the first three months of 2015, the BFP has recorded 4,682 fire incidents in the country.

READ: Probers check ‘human intervention’ in Calapan fire

The Philippine National Police said it supported the filing of charges against negligent fire starters.

“We respect the provision of the law. It exempts nobody,” PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo Jr. said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

“Hindi rin acceptable ‘yung logic na ‘bahay ko ‘yan, bakit mo ako kakasuhan,” (The logic that ‘It’s my house (that burned down), why charge me’ is unacceptable) Cerbo added.

The PNP officer said the BFP was right in wanting to prosecute people whose houses burn down out of neglect and put the lives and properties of others at risk.

“We agree with the BFP on their stand,” Cerbo said.

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