Three fires destroy house, tires in Mandaue, Cebu cities

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Three fires in a span of four to five hours hit the cities of Cebu and Mandaue on Saturday, March 16, destroying a two-storey house and a lot of discarded tires in two vacant lots.

At nearly noon or at 11:51 a.m., Cebu City firefighters responded to a fire alarm in Barangay Pardo.

SFO1 Leo Pastrana, Cebu City fire investigator, said that the fire that destroyed the house in Sitio Lusminda was declared under control at 12:17 p.m. and was fire out at 12:29 p.m.

Pastrana said that damage to property was estimated at P100,000.

Initial investigation, Pastrana said, showed that the fire started at the second floor of the two storey house owned by Ruperto Arsenal, who was abroad at the time of the fire.

Pastrana said that Arsenal’s house was rented by a certain Kimberly Uy.

One of the renters and Uy’s companion, said she just left the house to buy some shampoo but when she returned the house was already on fire.

She said that she was not cooking at that time, and no devices or gadgets were plugged at outlets when she left the house.

She, however, said that there were children playing at the first floor of the house.

No one was hurt in the Pardo fire, and fire investigators were still investigating the cause of the fire.

A couple of hours later two fires hit Mandaue and Cebu City reclamation areas.

Discarded tires dumped in two vacant lots, less than two kilometers apart, caught fire also an hour apart in the Mandaue Reclamation Area and the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City.

At 3:21 p.m., the Mandaue Fire Station responded to a rubbish fire alarm at a vacant lot along F. Zuellig Avenue at the Mandaue Reclamation Area.

It took firefighters around 40 minutes or at 4 p.m. to douse the flames of the burning discarded tires at the vacant lot before they could officially declare a fire out. 

Nearly an hour later or at 4:55 p.m., another rubbish fire broke out and this time at Block 27 lot or the former impounding area of the former City Traffic Operations Management (Citom), which was also caused by discarded tires dumped in the area that also caught fire.

The Mabolo Fire Station responded to the rubbish fire alarm which later declared it fire under control at 5:52 p.m.

Meanwhile, Fire Office 1 (FO1) Lina Uy of the Mandaue Fire Station told Cebu Daily News in a phone interview that an investigation was conducted to determine the cause of the fire.

Here are some scenes of today’s fires in Cebu and Mandaue Cities:

Firetrucks and firefighters respond to a fire alarm in Barangay Pardo at 11:51 a.m. on Saturday. | Benjie Talisic

Cebu City firefighters declare the Pardo fire out at 12:29 p.m.| Paul Lauro

Black smoke is seen at the back of the Bayfront Hotel at the height of the rubbish fire at the vacant lot at the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City. | Gresheen Gift Libby

A firefighter continues to put out the fire in an empty Block 27 lot at the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City at past 5 p.m. of March 16.  | CDND Photo/Delta Dyrecka Letigio

Smoke from the two rubbish fire on Saturday, March 16,2019, at F. Zuellig Avenue, Mandaue  Reclamation Area and at Block 27 of the North Reclamation Area in Cebu City can be seen at two buildings in the area. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio /dbs