Fire guts 500 houses in Malabon

At least 500 houses were destroyed when a fire caused by a fallen kerosene lamp broke out in a squatters’ colony at midnight yesterday in Malabon City.

Senior Inspector Rodrigo Reyes, Malabon City Fire Station chief, said that some 2,000 families were rendered homeless by the fire that started at the house of one Bernard Bernal Fernandez at Sitio 6 in Barangay Catmon at around 12:15 a.m.

Arson investigator FO3 Rogelio Gayon said that a stray cat overturned the kerosene lamp causing the fire that quickly engulfed Fernandez’s house which was made up of light materials. The blaze spread rapidly and reached Task Force Echo destroying some 500 houses in the neighborhood. Firefighters put the blaze under control at around 1:51 a.m. and declared it out at about 3:55 a.m.

Mayor Tito Oreta and the local Department of Social Welfare and Development chief Luz de Guzman yesterday sent foods and clothings to the affected residents.

Oreta also sent tents for those who refused to be evacuated. The mayor made the Catmon Elementary School available as the victims’ temporary shelter.

"Many of them refused to leave, so the mayor also sent them tents," Ruby Esteban of the local DSWD said.

Fire probers placed the damage at around P3 million.

Nobody was reported hurt in the incident, Reyes said.