Mandaue fire guts 40 houses, leaves 300 homeless

TABOK FIRE. The silhouette of the firemen fighting to put out the blaze that rages inside the Chikai Rattan Furniture factory in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City, early evening on Tuesday, April 3, 2018. The fire also burned down 40 houses, displacing 300 persons from 50 households.

AROUND 300 persons from about 50 families were rendered homeless in a fire that gutted at least 40 houses and a furniture factory in Sitio Upper Tabok, Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City, on Tuesday evening.

Senior Supt. Samuel Tadeo, regional director of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Central Visayas (BFP-7), said the fire that originated from the second floor of the three-storey boarding house of Rebbeca Cahigas at 5:53 p.m. quickly spread, prompting them to raise a general alarm by 6:19 p.m.

The Mandaue Fire Department, aided by close to 50 firefighting units that came from as far as Danao City in the north and Talisay City in the south, were able to control the fire by 7:30 p.m.

Tadeo said they were still verifying reports that a couple boarder of Cahigas was having a fight and had left a butane stove unattended, causing the fire.

The fire immediately spread to adjacent houses before it reached the 600-square meter compound that housed the Chikai Rattan Furniture, which contained a number of highly flammable materials, resulting to loud explosions as the compound was gutted by the fire.

The furniture shop contained rattan materials, finished products, equipment, paints, paint thinners and other chemicals, said Tadeo.
The adjacent ice cream warehouse was also partially burned, he added.

Jessie Perez, head of the Mandaue City Social Welfare Service, said they would be attending to at least 300 persons from about 50 families who were affected by the fire.

The fire victims were given shelter at the barangay’s gymnasium, said Tabok Barangay Captain Dario Tariman.