PAGADIAN CITY – Around 52 houses and 15 business establishments were razed by fire at 11:50 p.m. on Tuesday in Malinao village, Mabuhay town, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Engr. Lloyd Franza, action officer of the Zamboanga Sibugay Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, said the fire survivors were temporarily housed at the Mabuhay town gymnasium.
He said his office expected the final list of establishments gutted down by the fire to exceed the 52 houses initially recorded because the gutted community was a slum area.
Mabuhay Bureau of Fire Protection investigators said the fire started in a charcoal warehouse at the Malinao village wharf. It escalated to the nearby houses and business establishments. BFP investigators said the warehouse was made of light materials.
BFP placed the damage at P2 million.
Franza said the Mabuhay local government had extended its initial assistance to the fire victims./lzb