Fire leaves 45 individuals homeless in Consolacion
CEBU, Philippines — Smoldered egg trays used to repel mosquitoes allegedly started a fire that razed 13 houses in Sitio Bangkerohan, Barangay Tayud, Consolacion, Cebu Monday evening leaving at least 45 individuals homeless.
Fire Officer 3 Edmar Tuñacao said the fire started at the house owned by Dondon Purog at around 7:45 p.m.
“Base sa among inisyal nga imbistigasyon, ang egg trays gidagkutan unya gihimo og katol kay daghan daw og lamok,” said Tuñacao, fire investigator of Consolacion Fire Station.
Purog allegedly left his house made of light materials with a lighted improvised mosquito repellent to do some errand outside.
“Matud pa niya nga dali ra man daw siya nibalik. Mao to pagbalik niya niulbo na ang sunog,” said Tuñacao.
It took firefighters 42 minutes to completely put off the fire due to narrow access. The fire department pegged the damage at P250,000.
Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado has assured the fire victims that they can rebuild their houses in the area.
“Momentarily ato lang pabalikon while nag work out pa ko og national housing project thru socialized pag-IBIG projects,” said Alegado.
Alegado said there were 45 individuals affected by the fire based on the records of the Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office. The fire victims are now temporarily sheltered at Tayud Elementary School.
The mayor said that the area where the fire occurred has more or less 68 houses wherein residents are mostly members of Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
“Original nako nga list is 68 houses ra gyud na since 2010, it did not rose (sic) so much because we are monitoring. These population is inclusively part of all our anti-poverty program. The firemen yesterday cannot enter kay gamay kaayo agianan, tao ra makaagi,” Alegado said.
The mayor said they could not widen the access road because owners of the adjacent lots refused to give a road right-of-way. — (FREEMAN)
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