Regional fire marshal tells Comar, Codilla to stop making statements

City fire marshal Esmael Codilla and assistant regional fire marshal for operations Anderson Comar have been ordered to stop issuing statements about the latter's earlier claims that Codilla allegedly handled haphazardly the fire that razed a building at the Capitol grounds Tuesday.

Director Victoriano Remedio, the regional fire marshal, issued the verbal directive to them during a meeting with fire chiefs Wednesday to prevent the exploitation of the issue and harming the reputation of Codilla and Comar.

Codilla, in an interview with The Freeman yesterday, admitted however that he was surprised to see Comar appeared in a live interview with a local TV network the same day the directive was issued.

He said that, for his part, he would no longer make further statements on the issue to comply with the directive of Remedio.

Comar had criticized Codilla the other day for leaving the fire scene after declaring that the first fire at the Capital grounds was already under control.

After Codilla left the place, the fire went up again and spread to adjacent parts of the building occupied by the Civil Security Unit where the flames flared first, Comar said.

Comar also said it was premature for Codilla to declare the fire under control, adding that the fire marshal might not have seen the rear part of the building where the fire could have been still active.

Codilla countered by saying again that his action was appropriate at that time because the situation was already in its overhauling stage. "I know better...it was appropriate at that time," he said citing the many times in the past when he responded and handled fire alarms.

Codilla insisted that his move was not haphazard because he declared the fire under control at 1:42am and the second fire struck at 3:10am, or over an hour after he pulled out from the scene.

He also disclosed that he would be conducting a probe on what exactly caused the fire to rekindled, suspecting that there might be substances or chemicals in the ruins that triggered such.

Knowing that Mayor Tomas Osmeña had taken his side of the issue, Codilla said he was flattered. "Knowing his standards, I am very much flattered nga nidepensa nako siya," the fire official said.

Osmeña said he knew how fire marshal works, and he even warned that if the criticisms were only meant to discredit and oust Codilla from the post, the city government might be forced to pull out its support for the fire department.

The mayor said that he has been generally satisfied with Codilla's work and believed that the fire department, under Codilla's leadership, has been the "best performing agency" in the city.

The area where the fire first broke out was once the detachment of the Cebu City Fire Department but the provincial government, in 2004, converted the place into office spaces.

Among those razed in the recent fire were six vehicles, a motorcycle, the government-issued Nissan Terrano of Capitol consultant Byron Garcia and his privately owned Starex van. - Joeberth M. Ocao