A photo of a house in Talisay City that was hit by a fire on Wednesday afternoon, March 30, 2022.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Firefighters and residents in a privately owned compound in Brgy. San Isidro, Talisay City successfully prevented a fire from breaking out on Wednesday afternoon, March 30.
Around P9,000 worth of personal belongings and damage to property went up in smoke when a fire erupted in a house inside Tiago Compound, Brgy. San Isidro.
The house, owned by a certain Eddie Bernido, was empty when the fire occurred. Fortunately, Bernido’s neighbors were quick to call the nearby fire station.
Firefighters received the alarm at 4:34 p.m. and had the flames under control at 4:48 p.m.
They officially declared fire out at 4:54 p.m., exactly 20 minutes after they got the call from residents in the area.
According to Fire Officer 1 Jason Balabag of the Talisay City Fire Station, initial investigations showed that the fire started in the kitchen on the ground floor.
“Matud pa sa tag-iya, nag lung-ag sila ganina unya nakalimot tingale ug palong sa lung-ag. Ilahang gigamit (sa paglung-ag) kay kahoy,” said Balabag.
He added that Bernido, and his wife Teresa, left the house when the fire broke out, When gray smoke started coming out from one of the windows, their neighbors immediately asked for help and alerted firefighters.
In a separate interview, the Bernido couple said they were in a nearby public hospital to treat Eddie’s wounds which he sustained before the fire happened.
Eddie said before they went to the hospital, they checked if the firewood they used to cook their rice no longer had any flames.
“Padung mi sa hospital ato unya wala man untay kalayo na,” said Eddie.
However, the 71-year-old resident admitted that they forgot to douse the “baga” (ember) with water before they left their house. This led fire investigators to theorize that ashes from the burnt firewood may have drifted to a nearby room filled with light materials such as cartons.
In the meantime, Balabag said they will conduct further investigation to determine the real cause of the fire. /rcg
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