A fire hit the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City dawn of April 1, destroying research materials, archival materials, such as theses and dissertations, and historical documents, including paintings more than 300 years old, and valuables belonging to faculty members.
The fire struck the Faculty Center of the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy at 1:15 a.m., and was declared under control at 4:40 a.m.
The Faculty Center, also known as Rizal Hall or Bulwagang Rizal, houses most of the department of CAL and CSSL.
The three-hour fire erased bodies of work of history, art, literature, languages, philosophy, political science, sociology and anthropology, according to Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs Nestor Castro.
“Those destroyed were priceless materials,” he said.
“You cannot put a peso value of what was lost in terms of years of research,” Chancellor Michael Tan said.
The blaze began at the Faculty Center’s third floor and reached the fifth alarm or Task Force Alpha at 2:20 a.m.
It gutted down the west wing of the Faculty Center facing the side of the CAL building.
About 20 firetrucks responded on the scene.
At least 250 faculty members had been affected by the fire.
“There were no injuries or casualties. The other losses are incalculable, considering all the books, research notes, archival materials that went up in flames. There was much grieving from faculty, staff, students who rushed to the site,” Tan’s statement read.