an auspicious beginning

an arsonist is haunting legazpi city these days.
last week he razed the b.u. little theater to the ground.
before that, a portion of aquinas hospital,
as well as some other hospitals.
two attempts were made at st. raphael's church,
both of them frustrated by timely discovery
of small starting fires - fire on a pew; burning jacket
draped on the church's sound system controls.
yesterday i saw a portion of divine word,
thick smokes billowing from windows, firetrucks all over,
onlookers, students & employees waiting outside.
it was the school's a.v. room that got gutted.
is he just a single individual or does he work with a team of sorts?
some eyewitness accounts describe a 40-something
male, average height, relatively stocky.
is he a pyromaniac? or simply part of a grand scam
to boost sales of fire prevention tools or the security business?
i don't know. & authorities are mum about the matter,
presumably they're doing something about it, considering
the high profile institutions the arsonist has been targetting.

an auspicious beginning for a pretentious,
a bit self-conscious, little blog. this blogger
though vows no relation or complicity
whatsoever to the legazpi arsonist.
why firesetter news? for various reasons
but mainly because this blogger hopes
to set a different sort of fire. the one that brings about
meaningful change, and such other big and vague things as
renewal, recovery, reducing extreme poverty
and, let's not forget, world peace.
i hope to do more than just 'light a candle & stop cursing
the darkness' or to simply 'keep the flame burning'.
the ideal is to start & keep nothing less than a conflagration.
more like, a hip & driven, pro-active 'voice in the wilderness'.

this is the blog of a young deacon starting public ministry,
with as much fire and fear as could be decently expected, as an
office drone, a glorified assistant to the assistant to the boss-man.
this is me: transitional deacon, occassional cynic, aspiring firesetter.