Fire hits building housing US servicemen in Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY –– A fire that raged for more than an hour Friday morning, July 5, gutted a building used by United States servicemen stationed here.

Supt. Jhufel Brañanola, district fire marshal of the Zamboanga City Fire Department, said the fire hit a two-story semi-concrete building named Marine Security Element inside the vast Camp General Don Basilio Navarro.

The incident was still being investigated, but initial findings point to some problems with electricity connections, Brañanola added.

The fire was first reported to the Fire Department at 9:05 a.m.  It reached the second alarm 15 minutes later.

It took until 10:20 a.m. to put off the fire. No one was reportedly hurt in the incident.

Brañanola said the responding teams included three from the Fire Department and supported by water tankers from the City Disaster Risk and Reduction Management Office.

The fire left the US servicemen’s building partially damaged, and “razed valuable items like personal items, pieces of jewelry, laptops and other gadgets and cash,” according to Brañanola.

He placed the damage to the building at P2 million.

Lt. General Cirilito Sobejana, commander of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said the displaced American soldiers would be temporarily housed in some quarters inside the camp.

“We have an available facility for their temporary shelter,” Sobejana said.

Camp Navarro is located in Barangay Upper Calarian, some 4.2 kilometers from the city proper. It hosts offices of military units, including the headquarters of Westmincom. (Editor: Leti Z. Boniol)