Fire razes 23 houses, is the 4th to hit Paknaan this year
About 40 families were displaced and 23 houses were burned down by a fire that hit Zone Camansi in barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City at past 2 p.m. yesterday.
Hundreds of affected residents barely managed to get out of their homes and into safety as the area is crowded with houses, has narrow streets and is located nearly 100 meters away from the main road.
No one was hurt and the fire was put out at 5 p.m. Damage was estimated at P800,000.
Yesterday’s fire was the fourth to hit barangay Paknaan this year.
On March 17, 130 families were displaced and 38 houses were destroyed by a fire that hit sitios Batong, Talong and Camansi.
On July 8, three houses were burned down and one house was damaged in sitio Sili.
Nearly a week later, 35 houses were destroyed in Zone Kamunggay in the same barangay.
In all three cases of fire outbreaks, only a few people were injured, though damage was placed at more than half a million pesos each.
The Mandaue City Fire Department received the alarm on yesterday’s fire at 2:14 p.m., and fire trucks arrived 10 minutes later after being stalled by traffic along Plaridel Street.
The city fire station raised the alarm to Task Force Alpha, which meant they asked for assistance from neighboring towns and cities.
Senior Fire Officer 4 Roy Garcia said their initial investigation showed the fire started in the home of Lorenzo Baunsit.
He said neighbors heard explosions while others saw sparks fly from wires attached to the ceiling of Bausit’s house on the second floor.
SFO4 Garcia said the area has very narrow access roads which barred fire trucks from entering the fire site.
“We initiated a hose relay in which we attached hoses to each other so we can put out the fire,” he said.
He said the area should have at least a dry fire hydrant if it can’t afford re-blocking.
Paknaan barangay chairman Malaquias Soco said they asked the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to put up fire hydrants in the area.
“Pero duna ta’y volunteer fire brigades dinhi unya kada zone duna ta’y gibutang nga fire extinguisher (But we have volunteer fire brigades here and we put up a fire extinguisher in each zone),” Soco said.
Soco said he called up the Mandaue City Social Welfare Office to attend to the fire victims who were temporarily sheltered at the Vamo Gymnasium near the fire scene.
Soco said the barangay council has yet to assess if they can place the sitio under the state of calamity.
“Kay ang pag-declare og state of calamity is at least 25 percent of the barangay’s population, pero morag wala man kaabot (Declaring a state of calamity means that 25 percent of the barangay’s population is affected, but it seems affected residents are not as many),” Soco said.
Soco said he will ask for financial assistance from the Mandaue City government on behalf of the fire victims.
Some of the victims owned the houses through a community mortgage program.