THEY were supposed to keep the man safe but unintentionally put him in harm’s way.
Rene Fuentes, believed to be mentally ill, was burned to death when a fire of still undetermined cause, broke out and destroyed the old city hall building of El Salvador, Misamis Oriental at around midnight Monday.
Senior Insp. Reynante Lorono, El Salvador’s fire station chief, said Fuentes, a resident of the city, was entrusted by the city’s social workers to the police station for “safekeeping.”
But the police’s idea of “safekeeping” was to put Fuentes, who committed no crime, behind bars. There, inside the cell, the man was charred to death.
Who would answer for the death of Fuentes remains unclear at presstime.
The fire spread to the offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, post office, city engineering department and the old city council session hall. Fire fighters put out the fire an hour and 30 minutes later.
Lorono said investigators were still trying to find out what caused the fire although initial investigation results point to a storage area at the city engineer’s office as place where it originated.
He said he suspected that the fire was caused by faulty electrical wirings but it was still inconclusive.
Investigators said they took the housing for a 40-watt florescent lamp for examination.
Lorono placed the structural damage estimates at P500 thousand. (nitz arancon)
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