Kamputhaw fire razes apartment building, kills 1

A Monday dawn fire burned a two-story apartment building located along Juan Osmeña Extension, Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City. | Photo courtesy of the Cebu City Fire Station

CEBU CITY, Philippines –A convenience store helper was killed in a fire that burned a two-story apartment building located along Juana Osmeña extension in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City at dawn today, June 15, 2020.

Senior Fire Officer 1 Mariechel Cabornay said that Gerson Ellera, 18, was trapped inside the store where he also slept.

Cabornay of the Cebu City Fire Department said that his employer, Victoria Amanduran, who occupied an adjacent room, immediately run to safety when the fire broke at about 2:47 a.m. and forgot to wake up Ellera.

“Dali man daw kaayo mi katap ang sunog dako naman kaayo,” he said.

(The fire immediately spread across the building.)

The fire was raised to third alarm 17 minutes later or at 3:04 a.m. before it was finally placed under control at 3:12 a.m.

Carbonay said they are looking at the possibility of an electrical short circuit as the cause for the Monday dawn fire.

Their initial investigation showed that the fire started at the ceiling of the convenience store that is located on the ground floor of the apartment building.  It, later on, spread to the second-floor units that were made of light materials.

Cabornay said the apartment building owned by Fe Necesario, 83, has already been in the area for decades, an indication that its wirings were also very old.

Fire investigators pegged the damage caused by the fire, which displaced at least 10 individuals, at P2 million.

Unlike Ellera, elderly couple Edgar and Sylvia Necesario, were lucky to have escaped the flame with the help of firefighters who were the ones who rescued them from their second-floor unit.

Cabornay said that Edgar sustained cuts from broken glass while Sylvia was unharmed. / dcb