Faulty electrical wiring cause of Garapan fire

Fire investigators determined that faulty electrical wiring was the cause of Monday’s blaze that burned the entire second floor of a commercial building in Garapan.

During their investigation, firefighter Daniel Suel said they found a lot of wirings or connections that were not done by professionals but by somebody unaware of the local electrical code.

“We found several indications that the fire was caused by electrical overloading,” Suel said.

The three-story building is located along Middle Road corner Dama Di Noche Street. No one was hurt in the blaze. Only the second floor was razed. According to the American Red Cross, the 27 affected Chinese residents were sent to the Century Hotel.

Suel said the floor of the building where the fire occurred contained two sections that were partitioned into rooms. There were five bedrooms in each section, he said. The middle portion was where the fire was strongest, he said.

Suel said the tenants told him that 25 minutes after the power came back, they heard somebody come out of one of the rooms, saying there was a fire in the building.

“One witness saw the fire at the back of that particular section. Our investigation corroborated that that’s where the fire started,” Suel said.

He said there were 24 people staying in the rooms.

“I believe four people were sharing one room,” Suel said, adding that he saw at least two children.

The investigator said that based on the electrical wirings he saw, the building was in violation of the fire code and building code.

He said they submitted their findings to the Attorney General’s Office, which will determine whether citations or charges will be filed against the building owner.

Fire Division acting deputy director Tom Manglona said their reports indicated that when their units arrived at the scene, the tenants were already out of the building.

“No one was in the building when firefighters came,” Manglona said.

He said their primary concern was to make sure people in the building were all safe and accounted for and to mitigate the fire damage to the structure.

“All in all I think it was a very successful fire ground operations, given the time that took our personnel to respond,” he said.

Firefighters placed the fire under control at 6:35pm.