DAVAO CITY – The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has called off the search and retrieval operation for the last missing call center agent who perished in the fire incident on December 23, 2017, at the New City Commercial Center (NCCC) Mall after human bones and personal belongings were positively identified by the family.
Intern-Agency Anti-Arson Task Force spokesman, Supt, Jerry Candido, said the charred human bones were identified by the family through a keychain and eyeglasses taken among the bones. Alexandra Moreno Castillo was the last of the 36 missing call center agents of the Survey Sampling International (SSI) reported missing.
Candido said all 38, including the NCCC Home Decor section employee, are now accounted for. In one or two weeks the team will complete the investigation report and this will be submitted to each member-agency of the task force.
The soonest the report will be completed will, however, depend on the response of the agencies or the persons to provide the team with documents. The team is also considering the timeline of the response from the call for assistance to the police.
Candido said the task force is also taking all documents from the building permit of the NCCC and the SSI from its original name in 2008. Other supplementary documents as required under the Fire Code of the Philippines have been retrieved.
Candido said the task force will now focus on the investigation of possible persons liable for the violation of the Fire Code particularly on safety lapses such as that could include the NCCC and SSI.
Earlier, the task force recommended the relief of five officials of the BFP-Davao who were signatories of the fire certificates for both the NCCC and the SSI. The team is also eyeing criminal, civil and administrative charges against officials of the BFP-Davao, the NCCC, and the SSI.
Candido said the team can announce what would be the liabilities and charges will be filed against liable people. In the findings of the task force, the fire was caused by an electric short circuit based on the Arson Laboratory results.
“Our short circuit theory is now confirmed through a scientific proof which was conducted by our Arson Laboratory,” Candido said.
“From the physical evidence that we brought to Manila, an electrical arcing traces were found on the galvanized tray which means that there was short circuit happened on the electrical wirings placed on the tray,” he said.
Electric arc or arcing is an electrical breakdown that produces an ongoing electrical discharge. Unwanted arcs in electrical circuits can cause fire.
He said the investigating team found screws and nails on the galvanized tray which the team believed that this caused the short circuit.
“We believe that those sharp things destroyed the insulation of the electric wires, and then the two wires stick together which became the reason of the short circuit,” he said. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
