3 fires usher in 1st week of May

Aurello Fuentes from Buhisan, Labangon (Back of Camera in Red Shirt) watched the burnt Tiger Taxi he had been driving while passing along Gaisano Country Mall.(CDN PHOTO/CHOY ROMANO)

A TAXICAB caught fire a few minutes after it offloaded a passenger at the entrance of a mall in Banilad, Cebu City yesterday afternoon.

Aurelio Fuentes, driver of the Tiger taxi with license plate number GXM-342, managed to get out of the vehicle before it was engulfed in flames.

According to Fuentes, he was driving to the exit of Gaisano Country Mall when he noticed smoke coming out of the car’s dashboard.

He immediately stopped the vehicle and got out.

A few minutes later, flames reached the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tank in the taxi’s trunk, causing it to explode.

Responding firemen managed to control and extinguish the flames. No one was injured.

Fire also broke out at the Pepsi Cola Compound at barangay Tulay in Minglanilla town yesterday.

FO1 Emmanuel Bolo told CDN they received the alarm at 2:26 pm with the fire in the open stock yard placed under control at 2:51 pm.

It was extinguished at 3:50 pm.

“Mga botelya man to ang nasunog gyud, sir, mao nang dugay kaayo na pawng ang kayo,” Bolo told CDN over the phone.

(The bottles stocked in the yard were the ones that caught fire. That’s why it took some time to extinguish it.)

Damage was pegged at P100,000.

A male employee of Pepsi was reported to have sustained a minor burn wound.

A minute later, at 3:51 om) fire broke out at sitio Tinabangay in barangay Mambaling.

According to PO3 Diosdado Andales of the Mambaling Municipal Police Station, only a portion of a house in the area caught fire.

“Dali ra man to. Pag-abot sa bombero wala na,” Andales told CDN.