CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A fire believed to be caused by faulty wiring gutted around 100 houses in Sitio San Isidro Labrador in barangay Lapasan in this city on Tuesday morning, May 31. Dame to structures were estimated at P1.8 million.
In a phone interview on Tuesday, SFO3 Rolando Aque, the station commander of Lapasan Fire Station of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), told Manila Bulletin that many of the houses that were affected were made of light materials. The area of conflagration was also near the coast.
“Many houses were affected because they were made of light materials and each house was inter-connected,” said Aque in vernacular.
“In addition, it is a coastal area so there was strong wind which could have been the reason for the easy spread of the fire,” added Aque.
Aque said the firefighters also had a hard time penetrating the area due to the difficulty of the pathways.
“The pathways are only for human size and the fire started on the center of the fire site and we were unable to position our firetrucks. Therefore, we did hose laying so that we can prevent the fire from spreading,” said Aque.
According to their initial investigation, Aque said the fire started at the second floor of the residence of a certain Verginia Laga.
As to the cause of the fire, the BFP was still conducting further investigation. However, they were looking at the possibility that a faulty electrical wiring may have caused the fire.
“According to her , the fire allegedly started on the second floor of her house and saw electricity flashing on the wire. That was her version. However, as of now, the investigation is still ongoing,” he said.
The City Fire District here received a call at around 6 o’clock in the morning and the fire escalated to 3rd alarm a few minutes later.
Despite the number of houses affected by the fire incident, Aque said the firemen, with the help of the residents, were able to declare the fire under control at 7:10 in the morning and declare fire out at 9:18 a.m.
Aque confirmed that no death was reported in the incident. However, he said, a certain Ronilo Labadan, of legal age, sustained wounds in his right foot after he helped his neighbors evacuate their belongings.
Rev. Jeoffrey Baconga, the administrator of Barangay Lapasan, said the affected families were evacuated at the covered court in Sitio Lapas Uno in the said barangay.
As of this writing, the personnel of the Barangay are continuing in their profiling to determine the number of families and individuals affected in the fire incident.
As of 11 o’clock in the morning, the Barangay Lapasan has already tallied 138 affected families (consist of 436 individuals), of which 15 of those families (consist of 56 individuals) were from the portion of Barangay Puntod.
On his Facebook page, Barangay Lapasan chairperson Julito Ogsimer called for help for the fire victims.
“Ang San Isidro Labrador gipukaw sa usa ka dako nga sunog nga milamoy sa mukabat sa gatusan ka mga panimalay. Ako inyong Kapitan maghangyo sa mga katawhan, ahensya sa gobyerno ug sa tanan nga malumo ug kasing kasing sa pag pa-abot sa inyong mga tabang para sa mga biktima,” he said on his Facebook post.
“San Isidro Labrador has been awakened by a huge fire that affects hundreds of houses. I am your chairman, asking the people, government agencies and all the people with a good heart for your assistance to help the victims,” said Ogsimer.