This is what is left of a parked car after the owner failed to save it from the fire that hit a residential area in Germelina, San Carlos Heights, Barangay Quiot in Cebu City this morning, October 29. | Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — An unattended lighted mosquito coil may have caused the late morning fire this morning, October 29, that destroyed 8 houses, damaged 4 others and displaced 45 individuals in Germilina San Carlos Heights, Brgy. Quiot in Cebu City.
“Katol gyod to gibiyaan nila,” claimed a certain Marcelo, who was interviewed by CDN Digital at the fire scene.
(It was probably a lighted mosquito coil that they left unattended.)
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Marcelo owned one of the houses that was razed by the fire. His house was beside the house where the blaze started.
One of the fire victims said that they heard explosions when the fire started.
“Nakadungog mig buto-buto. Niingon sila abi nilag (dunay) gipusil. Niingon man ang akong anak nga ma sunog ma. Nanagan mi sa bukid, kami tanan, bahala na lang ang mga gamit,” one of the affected female residents in the area told CDN Digital in an interview.
(We heard explosions. They thought that someone was shot. Then my child said that ma, there’s a fire. We run to the mountans (pointing to the other side of the hill away from the fire). We did not care about the things we left behind in our house.)
At the fire scene — a residential area situated at a side of the hill in San Carlos Heights — one can see the burned wreck of a parked car that was left behind by the owner when the fire hit.
As for the claims about an unattended mosquito coil started the fire, investigators have yet to verify these claims as they were still investigating the cause of the blaze.
FO2 Marie Grace Ambayan, fire investigator of the Cebu City Fire Office, said in her report that the estimated loss of property was estimated at P675,000.
“Some 12 houses were affected, 8 of these houses destroyed while 4 others were damaged,” said FO2 Ambayan in her report of the fire.
The fire was reported at 10 a.m. today, October 29, was raised to the first alarm at 10:03 a.m.— which meant that more firetrucks were needed, aside from the responding firefighters in the area.
It took firefighters 35 minutes to put the fire under control or at 10:38 a.m. and it was declared fire out at 10:44 a.m.
According to Cebu City Councilor Francis Esparis, who was in the fire scene at past 10 a.m. today, that the personnel of the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) would start identifying and verifying the victims of the fire.
Esparis told CDN Digital in an interview at the fire scene that food packs for the fire victims would be provided also later by the DSWS personnel.
As for the fire victims, Esparis said that they would probably be given temporary shelter in any of the evacuation centers in the barangay such as the area in a nearby grotto near the fire scene, the barangay hall or a school there.
He also said that the fire victims could be taken to any of the evacuation centers in the barangay such as the barangay’s gym or the schools there.