About 600 families were affected after a fire hit a residential area in Barangay Alabang, Muntinlupa on March 17. 

According to initial reports by the Muntinlupa City Fire Station and Muntinlupa City Department of Disaster Resilience and Management, the blaze started at about 4:48 a.m. in Mariategue and Joaquin Compounds in Wawa, Alabang. 

The fire in Barangay Alabang, Muntinlupa on March 17 (Photos from Muntinlupa PIO, Muntinlupa City Department of Disaster Resilience and Management)

(From the top) Affected families being registered, the tents for the families, and Mayor Ruffy Biazon talking to people at the evacuation site at Alabang Elementary School on March 17 (Photos from Muntinlupa PIO)

The fire, which lasted for nearly five hours, reached the second alarm at 7:22 a.m. before it was put under control at 9:06 a.m. and put out at 9:42 a.m. 

In an update by the Muntinlupa Public Information Office (PIO), as of 1:30 p.m., there were 600 families affected by the fire based on mapping and validation being done by the Muntinlupa Social Services Department (SSD). 

Muntinlupa Mayor Ruffy Biazon visited the fire site and the evacuation site at Alabang Elementary School where affected families are being registered and processed by personnel from Barangay Alabang and the city government. 

Eyewitnesses told Biazon that the fire started from a house beside a creek, and the blaze spread due to strong winds. 

Boats were also deployed to the creek to evacuate people who were trapped in the area, the mayor said.  

A new report from the Muntinlupa City Fire Station, which is now headed by Fire Supt. Rowena Gollod, the first female fire marshal in the city, stated that about 200 houses and establishments were destroyed in the fire resulting in a damage of P750,000 worth of properties. 

No one was injured in the blaze which affected about 400 people. An investigation is being held to determine the origin and cause of the fire. 

A total of 40 fire trucks and five ambulances responded to the incident. 

Biazon said he ordered the SSD to provide the families with assistance including non-food items such as personal and household items. The affected families will also be given hot meals. 

The families will also get financial assistance from the city government, he added. 

He said that due to the number of families affected by the fire, the Alabang Elementary School will not be able to accommodate all and another evacuation site will be opened where the families can temporarily stay. 

Biazon said fire trucks found it difficult to enter the compounds through the railway area, and had to operate from M.L. Quezon Street or “baybayin.”