An three-story commercial space was razed by the fire in Barangay Basak San Nicolas and left owners with P9 million property lost. | Jeffrey Rosal
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Electrical mishap was the possible cause of the two fires that hit Barangays Mambaling and Basak San Nicolas in Cebu City in a span of 10 hours on Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022.
Fire Investigator (FO3) Emerson Arceo of the Cebu City Fire Station, said this as he pegged the total damage to property of the two fires at P12.7 million.
The first fire that hit Barangay Mambaling at dawn today, Dec. 4, had an estimated damage to property to at least P3.7 million and left a thousand individuals homeless. The second fire hit at past 10 a.m. today destroyed an establishment with properties lost estimated to be worth P9 million.
Brgy. Basak San Nicolas fire
At about 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 4, a fire broke out inside an unoccupied three-storey commercial space in Barangay Basak San Nicolas (not Sitio Bayabas in Barangay Mambaling as previously reported by authorities).
“Commercial space na siya. Ingun sa owner, wala na nila gipaabangan for three years na nga bakante ang maong building,” Arceo said.
(That is a commercial space. The owner said that the place is empty and they did not have it rented out.)
Fortunately, after around 20 minutes, this was successfully put out.
According to Arceo, electrical mishap might also have been the caused of the fire.
“Subject na daw na siya sa separate incident sa pagpanglungkab. Manguha og mga wires sa sulod. Wala pa daw na mapatangtangi og kuryente. Naay possibilidad nga naapektuhan ang mga wiring sa sulod,” he added.
(Thieves have entered and stolen things from the empty building. They usually steal the wires inside. The electric wires in the building have not yet been removed. There is a possibility that the theft of the wires had affected the wiring inside the building.)
The owner told Arceo that thieves tried to steal things three times inside the commercial space, considering that this was already unused for three years.
He said that majority of the space, covering a 6000 square meter area, was destroyed by the fire.
Mambaling dawn fire
On Sunday dawn at past 1 a.m., a fire also razed several houses in Sitio Wangyu, Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City.
Mambaling barangay captain, Lawyer Gines Abellana, said that 131 houses were razed which left 293 families made up of 908 individuals homeless.
For now, Abellana said that these fire victims were housed in Sitio Viking Gym in Alaska Mambaling.
READ: Mambaling dawn fire leaves 330 families homeless
FO3 Arceo, for his part, also said that they were investigating the possibility that the fire in Sitio Wangyu was caused by an electrical mishap.
He said that the house where the fire started was already 20 to 30 years old.
“Electrical in nature kay karaan na na nga balaya. Since karaan na, same family ra nagoccupy ana pero subdivided na na siya. Naay possibility pod nga tungod kay karaan na ang balay, walay maintenance ilang kuryente, maoy nakacause sa sunog,” he said.
(It could be electrical in nature [the cause of the fire] because the house is already old. Since it is old, and same family has been occupying but it is already subdivided. However, there is a possibility that because the house is old, there is no maintenance on their electric wires, which could have caused the fire.)
“Kinahanglan gyud na sya at least magrewiring na samot na karaan na balay,” he said.
(They would need to at least do some rewiring especially that the house is already old.)
Aside from that, Arceo said that they were also verifying reports that the family occupying the house where the fire started were allegedly offering charging services.
“Mocharge sila og mga battery sa e-bikes. Basin naay possibility, amo pa giverify kay mao nay nanggawas sa mga storya nga nagcharge kuno na og ebikes. Duda sad nila didto sad nagsugod. Walay nakakita gyud kay tingkatulog,” he said.
“They charge batteries of e-bikes. Perhaps, there is a possibily, we are verifying this because that is the stories that came that this family allegedly charge e-bikes for a fee. They believe that that was where the fire started. However, nobody saw how it started because it happened when everybody was asleep.)
Arceo further said that most of the houses razed by the fire were made up of light materials.
Arceo said that the fires that hit the city today were the second and third fires in Cebu City since the start of the month.
With this, he reminded the public anew to at least regularly check the electrical connections in their respective homes.
“Nagkataas ang demand magkadako pod ang supply sa service provider. Ang possibility magtaas ang kuryente, meaning if atoang gamit is substandard or because of wear and tear na sa gidugayon sa connection, mao na eventually mubigay na siya mao na kasagaran nga reason nga magkasunog,” Arceo said.
(If the demand will go up, the supply of the service provider will also go up. The possibility, the load of electricity will be higher, and this will mean if we are using substandard wires or because of wear and tear of the electric connections because of these being old, that is usually the reason that there will be a fire.)
RELATED STORIES
CCFO: Unattended lighted candle caused the fire in Budlaan
Guadalupe fire: P1.8 worth of properties lost; 50 individuals left homeless
11 fires reported in Cebu City in less than two weeks – CCFS
P1.2 million in properties razed in 2 early Thursday fires in Cebu City
Fire razes houses in Quezon City