Victims of the Talisay City fire look for things that they can salvage from their razed house.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)
At least 15 families were displaced after an afternoon fire destroyed 15 houses in Sitio Quimba, Barangay San Roque, Talisay City about 12 km south of Cebu City yesterday.
Chief Insp. Randy Mendaros, investigator of the Talisay City Fire Department, said the fire started at 2:40 p.m. at the second floor of the house owned by Monalisa Monte.
According to initial investigation, Mendaros said they were looking into faulty electrical wirings or electrical misuse as the cause of the fire.
Monte was having an afternoon nap with her three little children at the first floor of their house when they were awakened by the shouts of fire from their neighbors.
“Ingon among silingan butane daw ang nakaingon sa sunog, pero kung butane ang kusina namo naa ra man sa ubos (sa balay)? Gipang-ibot man sad namo tanan namo appliances, pati electric fan, TV — tanan (The neighbors were all saying the butane canisters we were using caused the fire. How can it be butane when our kitchen is just downstairs? I am also certain that we unplugged all our appliances before sleeping, even our electric fan and TV),” Monte said.
The 33-year-old housewife said she immediately grabbed her three children and ran out of their house on seeing the fire gutting the second floor of their house.
“Gisiguro gyud nako akong mga bata. Kung wala pa mi kamata, sunog gyud ming tanan (I made sure that my children were safe. All of us would’ve been killed had we not awakened),” said Monte.
Nobody was reported injured in yesterday’s fire incident which was put out at 3:28 pm.
Mendaros estimated the damage to property at P150,000.
San Roque barangay captain Elzevier Abraham said the 15 families displaced were staying in a vacant lot in the area and the barangay was planning to put up a temporary tent area for them.
He, however, said the barangay had yet to look at their budget to see if they could extend financial assistance to the affected families.
“Sa karon, among ikatabang, maghatag lang gyud mi og pagkaon. Tan-awon pa namo among budget kay hapit na mo-end ang year, hurot-hurot na ang budget (We can offer food donations to the victims for now. We’re still weighing if we can provide financial assistance for them since our budget is already maxed out as we are almost at the end of the year),” Abraham told reporters yesterday.