Man dead; student suffers burns in Guadalupe fire
One person died while another was injured in one of two fires that hit a residential area in Cebu City and a building in Liloan town yesterday.
Giovanni Copio was declared dead on arrival at the Cebu City Medical Center after he fainted trying to save his belongings from the fire in sitio Sta. Lucia, Andres Abellana Extension in barangay Guadalupe.
Not even rain that fell could stop the flames, which broke out past noon.
Firefighters found an unconscious Basergo with a bleeding nose near his burning house.
“He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing, ” said Fireman Christian Basergo, adding that Copio may have suffocated and suffered a heart attack.
However, Copio’s relatives said the man accidentally slipped during the commotion and hit his head on the pavement.
The hospital did not indicate the cause of death since he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Liezel Costanilla, a third-year high school student, was was taken to the same hospital for treatment of second-degree burns. Witnesses said she ran out of the house, her body covered in flames.
A neighbor of the victim said Costanilla, who was awakened by the fire, tried to save her belongings when she was trapped by the flames.
The fire, the second to occur in Metro Cebu area on Friday, allegedly started at the house of Danilo Copio, a relative of Giovanni, in barangay Guadalupe at 12:42 p.m.
Cebu City Fire Marshal Anderson Comar said at least 13 houses were razed and two other houses were damaged.
The fire was placed under control after eight minutes.
A fire wall in the area prevented the fire from spreading to the neighborhood, said Comar, who estimated property damage at P375,000.
Guadalupe barangay captain Michael Gacasan said that fire victims are being sheltered in a vacant lot of an adjacent subdivision, PJV Homes.
Most of the victims decided to stay near their burned houses rather than stay at the barangay gymnasium.
Hours earlier, at 12:15 a.m., fire gutted a two-story building in barangay Yati in Liloan town, north Cebu.
FO3 Edwin Jopia of the Liloan fire station said the fire also gutted two multicab vehicles and two motorcycles.
The ground floor of the building was used as a manufacturing and display area for furniture, while the family of the owner stayed on the second floor.
Liloan fire investigators placed property damage at P300,000 but the owner of the building said the damage was P1 million.
Jopia said authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire. With Inquirer report
