Inayawan landfill fire razes 30 shanties

Firefighters battle the landfill fire in Barangay Inayawan in Cebu City on Sunday, February 17. | Photo by Benjie Talisic

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The late Sunday evening fire inside the Inayawan Sanitary landfill in Sitio White Road, Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City, which was declared fire out at dawn on Monday, February 18,  razed 30 shanties and displaced an undetermined number of individuals.

Chief Inspector Noel Nelson Ababon, Cebu City Fire Marshall, told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview on Monday, February 18, that they had declared the Barangay Inayawan fire as fire out at 5:18 a.m. or nearly 11 hours since it was reported at 6:47 p.m. on Sunday, February 17.

Ababon also said that they estimated the damage to property at P200,000.

Read more: Inayawan fire burns garbage, shanties built inside landfill

Ababon also said that they were still trying to find out what caused the fire which started at the house of Alex Ybiernas.

He said that the fire was raised to second alarm at 7:13 p.m. on Sunday as firefighters experience difficulty in putting out the fire because it spread quickly as the shanties were made of light materials and the garbage in the landfill easily caught fire.

He said the fire was put under control at 10 p.m.  

Read more:  Sunday night fire hits Barangay Inayawan

Ababon said that with fire out declaration, the firefighters, however, were still doing an overhauling of the fire site to make sure that it would not start again.

Meanwhile, the fire victims who included Jenny Condiman, were temporarily staying at the Inayawan gym.

Condiman said she was still traumatized after narrowly escaping from the fire.

She said that she could only save her three children when the fire broke out.

She said lost all her belongings to the fire./dbs