36 houses razed in afternoon fire at Casuntingan, Mandaue

Thirty-six houses were razed to the ground while seven more were partially burned when a fire broke out at sitio Tambis in barangay Casuntingan, Mandaue City yesterday afternoon.

All 43 houses were made of light materials and Mandaue City fire investigator SFO1 Roy Garcia said that estimated worth of property losses might reach P750,000.

There were no reported injuries or casualty, said Garcia adding that the fire alarm reached the fire station at 2:37p.m. Firefighters put the fire at third alarm level and they had it under control in 35 minutes.

Firefighters from Cebu City, Consolacion town, Chinese Fire Brigade, and Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation responded to the scene.

There was a report that a certain Edelena Estrope, a renter of the house where the fire allegedly started, left her 6-month old baby in the crib while trying to save her belongings. It was her neighbor who found and saved the baby from the burning house.

Garcia said investigations have been undertaken to determine the cause of the fire, and so far there were two angles that were being considered.

He said the first angle was that a washing machine in Estrope's rented house was left not switched off causing it to get a short circuit and burst. The other angle came from a witness who claimed that the fire started from a ceiling fan in that house.

Estrope reportedly denied she left her washing machine running but she admitted that she was watching a card game outside the house when a neighbor shouted that a fire broke out from inside the house. - Norvie S. Misa/RAE