Policemen turn into firefighters

CEBU, Philippines - Thirteen police officers of the Subangdaku police station turned into firefighters midnight yesterday when an electrical pole caught fire along M. C. Briones national highway in barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City.

Before the fire, the team, led by station chief P Sr./Insp. Frank Oriol, was manning a checkpoint along M. Logarta Street in barangay Subangdaku and an hour later transferred the checkpoint near La Tondena Inc. along M.C Briones National Highway.

While at their task, some of the men noticed sparks from a VECO electrical pole that stood in front of Allied Bank.

They immediately called the City Tactical Operations Center, which is based at the Mandaue City Police Office, to inform it about the condition of the pole.

But minutes after they informed the MCPO, the sparks turned into a fire, which engulfed the pole and its wirings.

For fear that the fire might spread to adjacent buildings, and that since no fire trucks were in sight yet, the policemen took the initiative to wake up all occupants of the second and third floor of the building near the pole, the first floor of which was occupied by Allied Bank.

They then learned from the occupants that the building had a hose and five fire extinguishers.

Quickly, they then climbed to the third floor and broke one of its windows to get to the roof.

There they trained their extinguishers and the fire hose at the blazing electric pole while the rest of the officers guided occupants safely out of the building.

It was over after thirty minutes.

Just then fire trucks and a VECO representative arrived.  (FREEMAN)