Residents can only look at the rubble that used to be their homes until a fire ravaged their area. CDN Photo/Lito Tecson
A woman was severely burned while 150 families were displaced by a fire that razed 50 houses in Sitio Lower Malibu A at Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City, at past 4 a.m. yesterday.
Candida Tuston, a food vendor, sustained second-degree burns after an improvised stove she used blew up at her while she was cooking.
The fire spread to neighboring houses, Senior Fire Officer Edgar Vergara said.
Tuston was rushed to the hospital by neighbors, some of whom were kept busy trying to put out the fire at their homes.
Subangdaku Barangay Chairman Ernie Manatad said Tuston and her husband were new to the area.
Tuston’s husband was at work when the incident occurred.
Manatad said his house nearly got burned by the time the firefighters arrived in the area to put out the fire at past 5 a.m.
Merryfel Leparto, a 24-year-old sales clerk who was four months pregnant, had to be rushed to an ambulance after she was forced to jump from her rented room at the second floor of an apartment that got hit by a fire.
Manatad said the fire victims are staying temporarily at the Subangdaku Elementary school gym.
Some were staying in tents set up at the basketball court near the fire site.
He said they were scheduled to conduct a school parade at the area, but instead they gave the food they prepared for the activity to the fire victims.
Mandaue City Mayor Luigi Quisumbing said he told the City Social Welfare and Services (CSWS) to conduct an assessment of the victims prior to allocating cash assistance to them.
The CSWS said they are asking for donations from the private sector for food, clothing, mats and kitchen utensils.
The residents were housing beneficiaries of the Mandaue City government occupying a 9.2-hectare lot in Sitio Malibu A.
“They can rebuild their homes,” Manatad said.
Damages were pegged at P300,000 since the families lived in homes made of light materials.