Acting Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella comforts a child whose house was destroyed in a fire last Wednesday evening. (CDN PHOTO/CHRISTIAN MANINGO)
A 37-year-old masseuse admitted that she failed to unplug a mobile device charger which later overheated and set fire to 11 houses in an uphill area in sitio Fatima, barangay Apas Cebu City last Wednesday.
Amparo Aparace said she was charging her phone inside her bedroom when she asked her six-year-old daughter to check it.
“I told her to check if the battery was full. It would be hard to climb up and down the stairs because of my condition. She took the phone but didn’t unplug the charger and this caused the fire,” she said in Cebuano.
Aparace, who suffers from a leg deformity, had been living in the area since 2002 after her house was demolished in sitio Baka in barangay Banilad.
Aparace said she had to crawl to the front door, then roll down the concrete stairs to escape.
“My head felt numb at first and I sustained some scratches. It was funny though when someone, who is also a physically-challenged person, tried to carry me. But we decided to just crawl away from the area when he realized I was too heavy for him to carry,” Aparace said.
A part-time masseuse, Aparace said she does not require help to get herself down from the steep and congested sitio going to the city proper to work.
“Mas mugamay akong kita kung mubayad pa ko (It would reduce my earnings if I have to pay for a guide),” she said. Aparace and 60 other fire victims are now housed in the Apas gym.
Last Wedneday evening’s fire displaced 18 families. A Cebu City employee said the fire site was occupied mostly by persons with disabilities (PWDs). She said some had to be heaved through windows just to be saved.