Fire investigators are looking at an unattended lighted kerosene lamp or a lighted cigarette butt to have caused an early Friday morning fire that destroyed two houses in Barangay Paknaan in Mandaue City.
SFO1 Noel Codilla, Mandaue Fire Station investigator, said that they had not determined the cause of the fire yet, but they were checking on the possibility that it was started by an unattended lighted kerosene lamp or a cigarette butt because the house where the fire started had no electricity and were made of light materials.
Codilla said that the house where the fire started was rented by Julie Arnaiz and owned by Oscar Mendoza while Dionilo Mangubat’s house, which was adjacent to that of Mendoza’s house, was also destroyed by the fire.
Codilla estimated the damage to property at P50,000. Fortunately, no one was injured in the fire.
He said that the fire alarm was received at 1:49 a.m. and fire trucks were deployed to the area.
The deployed firefighters after assessing the fire raised it to the second alarm.