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Friday, March 29, 2024

Fire incidents in Iloilo City caused by power wires

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More than half or 1,464 cases out of 2,887 incidents of fire in Iloilo City since January 2014 were caused by faulty electricity wire setups in street poles, many of which are owned by the franchise-less Panay Electric Co. which is being investigated by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Iloilo City Fire Marshall Chief Inspector Christopher Regencia said per his experience, street pole fires are caused by high-voltage electricity wires and not by the low-voltage wires put up by telecommunications and cable TV companies in the same poles.

Regencia said in the case of Iloilo City, the BFP has assumed the fires came from short circuit in electricity wires by the distribution utility because of the huge sparks that usually precede the wires catching fire.

The Iloilo City fire chief’s statement is in response to the reply of PECO to his report to the ERC that more than half of electricity pole fires in Iloilo City were actually caused by telecommunications wires and not by PECO’s electricity wires in the street poles.

Regencia submitted the report to the ERC in support of the complaint filed by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas against the threats to public safety by PECO’s “inadequately-maintained lines, power outages and hazardous electric posts.”

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PECO had claimed its own tests prove that the low voltage telecommunications wires could cause a spark that could trigger fire.

However, Regencia said his experience in his entire career as a fireman and chief of fire departments of other cities showed that the pole fires were all caused by faulty electricity wire connections or old electricity wires whose rubber coating had worn off and exposed the wires to the elements. Such exposed wires explode or trigger sparks when they rub with other wires, thus causing fire, the Iloilo City fire chief said.

BFP records submitted by Regencia to the ERC showed that from Jan. 1, 2014 to Oct. 29, 2019, a total of 2,887 fire incidents occurred in Iloilo City, with pole fires numbering 1,464 cases, or 51.187 percent of all fire incidents during the almost six-years period.

The BFP also said another factor behind the pole fires is PECO’s failure to solve the problem of illegal connections or “jumpers.”

PECO had lost its congressional franchise after failing to convince Congress to renew it when it expired in January 18 this year over mounting consumer complaints against the poor quality and the safety issues of its distribution assets, the unfriendly customer relations culture among its staff and the frequent power outages.

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