Fire victims feel cramped in the small basketball court set aside as temporary shelter for them in Sitio Sto. Nino, Barangay Guizo. (CDN PHOTO/DOMINIC YASAY).
Nearly 400 families who lost their homes to the New Year’s Day fire in Barangays Guizo and Maguikay, Mandaue City at past Sunday midnight may be allowed to rebuild their homes in privately owned lots.
In yesterday’s press conference, Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing said he will ask the lot owners to allow land renters to rebuild their houses in both barangays.
Quisumbing said he ordered the City Social Welfare Office to attend to the affected families.
Guizo barangay chairman Jesus Neri said he will ask the Mandaue City government to reblock the fire site first before the families can rebuild their homes.
Neri and Maguikay barangay chairman Francis Tan convened their respective barangay councils to place the fire sites under a state of calamity to facilitate the release of their calamity funds to the victims.
Felix Suico Jr., head of the Bantay Mandaue Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office, said 236 families in Barangay Guizo and 163 families in Barangay Maguikay were staying in the covered basketball courts in their areas.
SFO1 Cifriano Codilla of the Mandaue City Fire Department said electrical short circuit triggered the fires in the two barangays.
Part of the fire site in Sitio Sto. Niño was hit by a fire early last year.
Suico said four fires were reported in Mandaue shortly before New Year’s Eve and shortly after the revelry.
Damages to property were pegged at P3 million, Codilla said.
The first incident, a truck fire, was reported at 11:14 p.m. on December 31 in Barangay Bakilid.
An unmanned six-wheeler wing van caught fire while parked near the 7D Dried Mangoes office, Suico said.
The second fire incident reported to the city command center at 12:27 a.m. damaged a warehouse in Barangay Looc.
Suico said the fire may have been caused by a lighted sky lantern which landed on the warehouse’s roof.
The warehouse owned by a Taiwanese businessman was used to store electrical supplies.
Suico said the firefighters had difficulty putting out the fire at the warehouse because it was locked and the security guard had no duplicate keys.
Suico said the Maguikay fire was put out at 2:26 a.m. while firefighters put out the Guizo fire before 3 a.m.
As of the moment, the families voiced their concern over the tents and tarpaulins provided to them, saying it may not protect them from the rain in the coming days.
“Di mi katulog og tarong (We can’t sleep well at night),” said 62-year-old Ma. Marining Arminion of Sitio Salvacion, Barangay Maguikay.
She and her family had been sleeping in mats laid out on the small concrete space that used to be their living room.
Arminion had no appetite for the meals provided by the CSWO.
“Kanang masunugan ta wa gyud ta’y gana mokaon kay gaproblema ta sa atong kahimtang (I don’t have the appetite to eat because I’m constantly worrying about our condition),” Arminion said.
CSWO chief Viole Cavada said house owners will each receive P10,000 in financial assistance while renters will receive P5,000.
She said they are still validating the list of fire victims.