Over a hundred families residing at the northern side of the Mactan Cebu International Airport runway lost their homes to a fire that broke shortly after midnight today, July 21. /Photo from the Facebook post of Nagiel Bañacia
CEBU CITY, Philippines – At least 150 homes were burned in a fire which hit a coastal community in Sitio Tacan, Barangay Ibo, Lapu-Lapu City shortly after midnight today, July 21.
Nagiel Bañacia of Lapu-Lapu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said that the fire-affected homes were located on the northern side of the Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) runway.
Damage to property was pegged at P400, 000, says Senior Fire Officer 1 (SFO1) Hadji Samonte of the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Department.
Bañacia said that the affected families are now temporarily accommodated at the Ibo Elementary School and sports complex.
The fire alarm was reported at 12:55 a.m. and was placed under task force bravo at 1:40 a.m. The fire was placed under control at 2:50 a.m.
Samonte said they are yet to investigate the cause of the fire which started at the interior of the urban poor community.
“Highly congested ang area unya made of light materials ang mga balay,” he said.
As of this writing, Samonte said they have not received any reports of casualties from the Ibo fire which was already the third to be reported in Lapu-Lapu City in the last seven days. A huge fire also burned around 200 homes in Sitio Ube in Barangay Gun-ob on July 14 while a second fire damaged at least 80 homes in the neighboring barangays of Mactan and Maribago on the evening of the same day.