Residents help fire officials put out a fire in Sitio Capaculan, Barangay Tisa, Cebu City on Friday morning, December 31, 2021. CDN Digital photo | Brian J. Ochoa
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City residents are encouraged to always be careful and mindful of using candles to light up their homes especially since power in some parts of the city had yet to be restored.
Senior Fire Officer 2 (SFO2) Wendell Villanueva, information officer of the Cebu City Fire Office, said that the residents should not leave their lighted candles unattended to prevent fire incidents from happening.
Villanueva said that they did not record any fire reported on New Year’s Day, but he was still concerned about the 23 fire incidents that happened in Cebu City since after typhoon Odette hit or from December 17 to December 31.
“Ang pagsugat nato sa bag-ong tuig kay ang gibantayan man gyud ang paggamit sa firecrackers nga mao una ang hinungdan sa sunog. Maayo kay wala ra,” Villanueva said.
(We closely monitored the celebration of the New Year and the use of firecrackers, which were usually the cause of fire.)
“Apan sa padayun nga sitwasyon nato diin daghan pa ang walay supply sa kuryente, make expect kita nga padayun sa paggamit og kandila, lampara ug genset ang matag panimalay, ug nagtangag kini og dakong risgo sa sunog,” Villanueva said.
(But with our continuing situation where many have yet to have their supply of electricity, we can expect the use of candles, lamps, and gensets for most homes without power and using these would carry a greater risk of fire.)
Earlier, Visayan Electric said that they would complete the rehabilitation of the electric lines by the end of January 31, 2021 in Metro Cebu.
Villanueva also said that they had not responded to any fire alarm from the evening of December 31 to January 1.
He said that this was a change in the last six years or since 2015 where they responded to at least 10 fire incidents in that span of time at the close and the beginning of the year.
He attributed this development to the ban of firecrackers in celebrating the New Year in the city.
He said firecrackers were usually the cause of fires from the evening of December 31 to January 1 in the last six years.
He, however, noted that in the morning of December 31, a morning fire hit Barangay Tisa in Cebu City, which was allegedly due to a unattended lighted candle.
Villanueva reiterated his call for vigilance and not to leave lighted candles unattended to prevent any fire incidents from happening.
He made the call especially again with several parts of the city still without power.
As of noon today, January 2, 2022, Visayan Electric was able to reenergize 132,309 out of the 474,182 affected customers, and restored 386 or 71.0 percent out of the 544 power line segments, within its franchise area.
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