Thick, black smoke can be seen rising from a mall in Barangay Mabolo which was hit by a fire on Friday afternoon, January 28, 2022. | Morexette Marie Erram
CEBU CITY, Philippines— ‘Millions’ worth of properties went up in smoke when an afternoon fire struck a mall located in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, on Friday, January 28, 2022.
Senior Fire Officer (SFO1) Wendell Villanueva, information officer of the Cebu City Fire Office (CCFO), said that they are still investigating the blaze pending their overhauling.
“Di paman ni mahuman so we are expecting pa nga pila pa ka hours nga finally declared fire out,” Villanueva said.
“Ang area ani dako dako man so once dili na kaayo siya aso sa sulod, sudlon sa atoang investigators para makita gyud og unsa kadak-a ang sunog sa sulod, from there makahatag nata og pila ang estimated damage,” he added.
However, Villanueva said that damage could go up to millions since according to their calculations the mall sits on a 3,000 square meter property with P80,000 worth of damage pegged per square meter.
Villanueva said that based on their initial investigation, the fire started from inside the mall’s food court which is located at the rightmost portion of the establishment.
“Pag sulod sa atoang inves adto nakit-an sa food court possibly lpg or electrical pero didto gyud ga start ang kayo,” Villanueva said.
Fortunately, Villanueva said no one was injured in the fire that lasted for three hours. According to the tenants, all their employees were accounted for while no one was also reported hurt from the side of the responders.
“Ganina naay nihamag diri nag motor, kay iya kuno kwaon iya maguwang nga nagtrabaho diha nga PWD, pero murag nakagawas raman,” he further said.
Villanueva said that the mall reportedly has five to six exit points which helped the employees and customers to immediately flee the burning edifice.
A female employee from a cellphone stall that rents space inside the mall said that she was only informed by their manager that a fire has transpired inside.
Mall personnel, she said, tried to put out the fire using a fire extinguisher. However, the fire quickly spread making other employees panic.
The female employee, who begged not to be identified, said she did not hear explosions prior to the fire.
As of this posting, some employees are still waiting outside the mall hoping to recover their belongings left inside.
Others expressed concern if they can still go back to their jobs after the incident.
Firemen received the fire alarm around 1:52 pm. This was raised to the second alarm at 2:46 pm and the third alarm at 3:53 pm.
The mall reportedly has around 70 establishments inside. /rcg
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