City eyeing new access road at Lorega fire scene

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government is planning on constructing another road traversing the three-hectare lot affected by last Tuesday's fire in Barangay Lorega-San Miguel.

The blaze, which took firefighters almost 10 hours to extinguish from the time they received the alarm, destroyed over 700 homes in eight sitios and displaced more than 5,000 residents.

Lawyer Jose Marie Poblete, Department of Engineering and Public Works chief and Task Force Lorega head, said that part of the city's reblocking plan is the widening of the two access roads in the fire-stricken area.

"We will clear the area to pave the way for reblocking," he said.

Poblete, however, admitted that this would not be easy since the affected residents need assurance that they could rebuild their homes in the same place as soon as possible.

He said some of victims have even started setting up makeshift tents in the area.

Poblete, City Administrator Lucelle Mercado, the Cebu Contractors Association, and barangay officials were set to meet with the affected families yesterday afternoon to discuss with them the need for reblocking to allow the creation of an access road.

Poblete said the residents have initially agreed to it, not wanting a similar fire to happen and victimize them again.

He said their aim was to finish the reblocking in a month since they also does not want to families to stay at the evacuation centers for a long time that they would feel they are entitled to be pampered by the government.

"As sad as it is, magamit ra ang fire incidents like these as an opportunity to reblock ang (the) area and diha pa maka-understand ang tawo sa value sa reblocking," said Poblete.

He also needed to discuss with the residents the widening of existing access roads like the Lorega and San Miguel Sts. and the need to construct a new one between the said roads.

Meanwhile, Mercado called on private donors to course through their donations to the Cebu City Government for fair distribution to the fire victims.

With the huge number of families affected by the fire, described as the biggest to hit the city so far, Mercado said they are not relying on Barangay Lorega-San Miguel alone to attend to the victims using its calamity fund.

"Naa ta'y atong kaugalingong (We have our own) calamity fund. The City can handle the problem, plus daghang private donors and even the (Cebu) provincial government is sending help," Mercado said.

As of Wednesday night, the city's Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) has recorded 1,293 families comprising 5,496 individuals who were rendered homeless by the fire.

Mercado said the number is expected to increase since there are other victims who were not yet listed down by the city's social welfare officers.

DSWS also said that the fire destroyed 743 houses in eight Lorega-San Miguel sitios.  (FREEMAN)