Caloocan fire leaves 20 families homeless

A fire that reached the third alarm razed a residential area in Caloocan City on Thursday, leaving around 20 families homeless.

According to Supt. Stephen Requina, Caloocan fire marshal, the blaze started at the second floor of Ferdinand Molina’s house at 7:40 a.m. on 9th Avenue in Barangay 63.

Barangay chair Fernando Baello said, however, that the fire spread to the neighboring area of Barangay 59.

There were no recorded fatalities in the blaze that was put out after an hour, but not before it destroyed 12 other structures surrounding Molina’s house, reports said.

“A barangay tanod (watchman) was injured because he was helping put out the fire with buckets of water. As he was going down the structure, he fell and sprained his ankle,” Requina said.

He added that the man did not seek treatment and just asked to be brought home. Authorities pegged the damage to property at P1.2 million with the cause of the fire still under investigation. —Meg Adonis