House razed in fire

CEBU, Philippines - One house was razed while two others were damaged by an early morning fire in Tabucanal, Barangay Pardo yesterday.

The house burned down totally was owned by Tina Lapitan while the two other houses are owned by Daisy Atillo and Cheryl Carbo-nero.

The fire reportedly started at Lapitan’s house, but firefighters found it difficult to determine what could have caused it because Lapitan’s house had no electrical connection and no one was cooking that day. They were not also using a kerosene lamp.

SFO3 Jim Hilayao of the Bureau of Fire and Protection in Cebu City estimated the damage at P50,000. The three houses were made of light materials.

Hilayao said that they received the alarm at 8:44 am and managed to put out the fire at 9:33am.

He said Lapitan and her daughter will be invited for questioning to shed light to the incident.

Initial investigation revealed that Lapitan’s daughter was going up the stairs when she noticed thick smoke coming from the second floor. Before she could shout for help, the fire reportedly started eating up their walls.

Meanwhile, a man identified as a certain “Caloy” who was trying to help put out the fire fell to the ground when the roof he was standing on collapsed. He was rushing with a pail of water at that time and did not notice that he had stepped on a weak portion of the roof.

He went unconscious after falling, but regained consciousness moments later. Personnel from the Ta-lisay City Fire Station also assisted in putting out the fire. — (FREEMAN)