AFTERNOON FIRE. A vehicle catches fire in the middle of the hour-long blaze that razed over a hundred houses in Sitio Cahipa, Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City, on Sept.
27, 2018.
HIPODROMO FIRE
Hipodromo Barangay Captain Rupinto Bacolod was expected to be leading his village officials in helping over eight hundred residents of his community displaced by the huge fire that hit the barangay yesterday.
This even if he himself is a victim of the same fire, losing his home of more than two decades to the blaze that razed over a hundred houses in just over an hour in Sitio Cahipa, Barangay Hipodromo, Cebu City past 3 p.m. on Thursday.
“The flames spread quickly and we were not able to save anything. Nothing was left of our house which has been there for more than 20 years. But thank God nobody got hurt,” Bacolod said.
But even as he was still to come to terms with his own loss, Bacolod was kept busy dealing with the needs of his displaced constituents, ensuring that they would be provided with a temporary evacuation center as well as immediate food packs.
Bacolod’s family — his wife and four young children — are now among the at least 193 families or 861 individuals from 115 houses who were displaced by the fire, said Renante Vanguardia of the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) in Cebu City.
The fire hit the densely populated community while many of Cebu City’s rescue volunteers were busy retrieving bodies of the landslide victims in Naga City in south Cebu.
Aside from Bacolod, also among those who lost their homes to the blaze were the relatives of self-confessed drug lord Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., who is currently jailed pending the resolution of the drug charges filed against him in court.
The Hipodromo Barangay Council was set to convene to place Sitio Cahipa under a state of calamity to allow them to use calamity fund to address the immediate needs of the affected families.
Although the flames spread quickly, no one was hurt.
Responders
Nagiel Bañacia, head of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CCDRMO), said they had to pull out one of their two teams helping in the ongoing search and retrieval operations at the landslide site in Naga City and send them back to Cebu City to help firefighters douse the flames in Barangay Hipodromo.
“We have responders stationed in the city but we still decided to send at least 10 more personnel who were originally assigned in Naga City to help firefighters in Barangay Hipodromo,” he said in an interview.
The Cebu City Fire Department received the alarm at 3:10 p.m.
The blaze quickly spread to nearby houses, reaching Task Force Alpha, which meant all fire stations from nearby cities and municipalities were asked to respond to the fire alarm.
The fire was placed under control at 4:19 p.m.
Fire Chief Insp. Noel Nelson Ababon, Cebu City fire marshal, said the blaze reportedly started from the two-storey house of a certain Ramie Inopiquez.
“We will ask him (Inopiquez) to come forward to our office to shed light on the incident. Everything is under investigation for now and we could not yet ascertain what really started the blaze,” he said in an interview.
Damage was placed at P2 million.
Help needed
The fire victims were given temporary shelter at the Hipodromo Sports Complex.
The Cebu City government distributed food packs to the victims on Thursday evening.
“As of the moment, what we can give is dinner for everyone affected by the fire. But definitely, financial assistance from the city will follow,” said Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella who temporarily assumes the city’s top post while Mayor Tomas Osmeña is on an official trip in Taiwan.
Bacolod appealed to the public for help, as they try to rebuild their homes and start anew.
“What we need now is food and portalets for our people,” he said.
Kerwin’s aunt Emma Espinosa said that they, too, were not able to save their belongings except for a few clothes.
“Wa mi magdahum nga mahitabo ni. (We didn’t expect this blaze to happen),” she said.
The Espinosas lost all their four houses in Barangay Hipodromo, including their 20-year-old family home.
Emma said they were nonetheless grateful that no one got hurt.
“Pasalamat mi nga luwas ming tanan bisan pa man ning trahedya nga nahitabo. (We were grateful that all of us are safe despite this tragedy),” she said.
Possible causes
Although the cause of fire in Hipodromo has yet to be known, Ababon said electrical misuse, faulty electrical wiring, and unattended open flame like lighted candles were among the top causes of fires that have hit Cebu City and its neighboring areas in recent years.
He advised residents and owners of commercial establishments to be extra careful, and to avoid overloading electrical outlets.
Ababon called on parents to monitor their children and to keep lighters and matches away from them.
Lamps and candles, he said, should also be placed in areas where there are no materials that can easily catch fire.
“We really should be careful in everything so that we prevent fires from breaking out,” he added.