PARDO FIRE LEAVES 1K HOMELESS

Area declared under calamity status

Residents of sitio Ulap and Laguna in barangay Basak Pardo fight through the haze of smoke swept through their area. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

Rodek Descartin was headed to work when his daughter called him up and told him that there was a fire in their area in sitio Bamboo Village, barangay Basak in Cebu City at 9:50 a.m. yesterday.

Descartin rushed home and saw his two-story house in flames along with the other houses in the site.

Slightly more than an hour later, his home and 177 homes were destroyed by the fire which displaced 262 families or 1,212 persons in Basak Pardo.

“Paeta uy, mao man ni ang nisugat nako nga nahagba na akong balay (This is terrible, I went home only to see my house destroyed),” a weeping Descartin told reporters.

Five hours later, another fire hit Zone Okra in barangay Paknaan near the Butuanon River and across the Umapad dumpsite at 3 p.m. which burned down 50 homes.

The state weather bureau Pagasa pegged yesterday’s temperature at 28.8°C and barangay officials cited the warm weather for spreading the fires in these areas.

Fire hydrants

Cebu City fire marshal Rogelio Bongabong said the fire affected 50 structures made of light materials in sitios Ulap, Laguna and Bamboo in barangay Basak Pardo.

Bongabong said the fire broke out at 9:50 a.m. in sitio Ulap and immediately spread to nearby sitios.

Some of the fire trucks were positioned outside the fire wall of the University of San Jose-Recoletos Basak campus adjacent to  fire site’s  location.

Despite the, narrow roads Bongabong said the presence of fire hydrants in the barangay and residents who helped connect the hoses  aided their efforts of  putting out the fire at 11:05 a.m.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, Bongabong said.

Accommodated

Basak Pardo barangay chairman Yolandito “Dodong” Cagang said City Hall’s Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) listed 177 fire affected structures and 262 affected families as of 2:30 p.m.

“But we will verify this tomorrow (today),” he said.

Fire investigators are looking at reports that children playing with flammable materials or unattended kitchens may have caused the fire. No one was hurt.

Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said the narrow roads made it difficult for firefighters to access the area and put out the fire. Damage was pegged at P600,000.

Labella directed the DSWS to prepare meals for the fire victims who were accommodated at the nearby Don Vicente Rama National High School and the barangay Basak gym.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is in  Japan on official business.

Boys use a garden hose to extinguish the fire that ate up houses in sitio Ulap and sitio Laguna in barangay Basak Pardo. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)

Reblocked

Labella said the fire site will have to be reblocked to open new and widen existing roads in the area before fire victims will be allowed to rebuild their homes.

He assured fire victims that they will not be displaced.

Cagang said the Basak Pardo barangay council convened in a special session last night to declare the fire site a calamity area and facilitate the use of their calamity funds to help the fire victims.

The Basak Pardo fire is the fourth major fire to occur in Cebu City this March which is Fire Prevention Month. Other fire outbreaks were limited to grass fires.

Labella said the fire site is a privately-owned lot managed by Japper Development Corp.

“There is an ongoing negotiation between Japper Development Corp. and the Division for the Welfare of Urban Poor (DWUP) for the lot,” he said.