Fire razes Dumarao catholic church, school
DUMARAO, Capiz—The centuries old Our Lady of Snow Parish Church which was established in the 16th century and the Catholic church-run school Our Lady of the Snow Institute (OLSI) were totally burned yesterday dawn.
SFO1 Diosdado Hadcan III, municipal fire marshall, told The News Today (TNT) that the fire started at around 1:30 a.m. and lasted until 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning.
Hadcan said the fire originated from the ceiling of the 2nd floor of OLSI and spread out to the whole school building and gutted the whole church.
He said initial arson investigation showed that electrical short circuit was the cause of the fire.
Hadcan also said that hours before the fire occurred, OLSI had an occasion which lasted at until 9:00 p.m., Sunday.
He added that estimated damage of the church was placed in the amount of P5 million while OLSI incurred an estimated worth of damage of P7 million or a total of P12 million.
Dumarao Mayor Leslie Warren “Beboy” Benjamen said that since the church was totally damaged, he offered the covered gym to be used as temporary venue of mass during Sundays and classrooms of displaced students of OLSI.
Benjamen was sad about the fire incident but he thanked that the fire did not reach the houses nearby.
Msgr. Delfin Delfin, the town parish priest, told TNT that all of the antique pilgrim images of different saints were also gutted as only the canopy was left by the fire.
Msgr. Vicente Hilata also said that the Catholic hierarchy will rebuild the church but for the mean time the Sunday masses will be temporarily held at the municipal covered gym while the daily masses will be held at the building near the church which was spared by the fire.
Hilata said that the church which was established during the Spanish Era was only renovated after it was damaged by Typhoon Undang in 1985
The convent, small building beside the church and the belfry were saved from the fire.
Firetrucks from from Dumarao, Cuartero, Ivisan, Tapaz, Sapian, Sapian Volunteer Fire Brigade, Dumalag, Bureau of Fire Protection, Capiz, Roxas City, Passi City, San Enrique and Pototan, Iloilo helped put off the fire.
