Firemen respond to a mid-morning fire in sitio Naba, barangay Mambaling in Cebu City. Possible cause: a butane can explosion and electrical misuse. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Neighbors suspect stove, butane can explosion
Three persons were injured and 122 families were displaced by yesterday’s fire that broke out in barangay Mambaling, Cebu City at 9:30 a.m.
Neighbors were talking about a household explosion caused by a butane canister filled with liquified petroleum gas (LPG), said Mambaling barangay chairman Wilfredo Go.
Fire investigators said they were also looking into electrical misuse or frayed wires, which are the most common causes of urban fires.
Fifty houses of wood and other light materials were destroyed by the time the fire was put out at 3 p.m.
Falling debris injured 39-year-old Ruben Zapanta in the forehead. Oliver Conol, 40, and Filmena Sucatre, 46, suffered burns after trying to salvage their belongings..
Go, the barangay chairman, said the fire started at the house of the Campaner family in sitio Abbya according to residents.
He said neighbors told him someone there was cooking using a refilled butane canister and left the stove unattended, causing the overheated canister to explode.
Sucatre said the the fire spread from a wooden wall which divided her house and another house owned by Lynda Campaner, who used the area as a kitchen.
Both will be invited for questioning by fire investigators.
“I wasn’t able to save any clothes or important documents from the fire,” said Sucatre in Cebuano. She tired to salvage belongings intended for her grandchild’s baptism next Sunday.
Last November 3, eight persons were injured in an explosion at a butane canister-refilling station in the home-based enterprise in Greyhound Subdivision in barangay Kinasang-an Pardo, Cebu City.
The accident prompted Cebu City officials to vow to strictly enforce a Department of Energy (DOE) ban on the use, sale and distribution of refilled butane canisters.
SF01 Edwin Handayan of the San Nicolas fire substation said he could not verify Go’s claim of a butaine can explosion before the fire broke out at 9:25 a.m.
Handayan said Linda Campaner just told him her two children Eugene and Sally were inside the house at the time.
Cheaper
Nevertheless, Go said he would warn residents to avoid using the cheap but risky cooking fuel.
Go admitted that his own family also used refilled butane canisters before because they were cheap.
He said he bought one cannister for P22 in Tabada, and now the price went down to P13.
“Kay barato man gud kaayo, pero mao lagi na, di gyod nimo biyaan kay piligro nga mobuto (Because it’s cheaper but that’s it. You shouldn’t leave it since it’s risky and it may blow up),” he said.
No markings
Go said his family stopped the practice and resumed using LPG tanks, which are safer.
Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak, who heads Task Force Butane, said he will check out the report of Go about a butane canister explosion.
If it’s true, Tumulak said this will spur the task force to campaign harder against refilled butane canisters, especially those with no markings.
For now, he said, the task force is focused on an information drive.
Go said yesterday’s fire forced 122 families or more than 500 persons to transfer to the Alaska Elementary School.
The barangay council was set to declare the two sitios in a state of calamity in order to tap calamity fund for the fire victims.
Narrow roads in sitio Abbya made it difficult for firefighters to work. They had to connect hoses to reach interior portions to spray water on burning houses.
Evacuation
Tumulak said the Cebu city disaster council which he heads will hold another disaster preparedness seminar in public schools.
He observed that the evacuation of students in Mambaling Elementary School became chaotic when the fire broke out.
“The guards were forced to open the gate because parents were already demanding that they be allowed to fetch their children,” Tumulak said.
Chairs and tables were okaced inside the classrooms for the victims.
Cebu City Mayor Micheal Rama also ordered the fire site reblocked after clearing operations are finished there.
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