BLAZE AFTERMATH Marcelo Pascua looks for anything that can be salvaged from the ruins of his house. —GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
MANILA, Philippines — A man who deliberately set his house on fire is believed to have caused the blaze that raged for over eight hours in Barangay Addition Hills — Mandaluyong City’s battered epicenter of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Supt. Jose Callos Jr., the city fire marshal, told the Inquirer that Francis Santos had admitted to and would be charged with arson.
The blaze began at 5:32 p.m. Monday and triggered a general alarm—the highest fire alert level—before it was put out at 1:40 a.m. Tuesday. Callos said it razed an estimated 800 houses, displaced more than 1,000 families and caused roughly P2 million worth of damage.
That the fire occurred in Addition Hills, which has the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the city, seemed an especially cruel twist of fate. The blaze was concentrated in Block 37, a dense residential area where makeshift homes were built of light materials.
The neighborhood is part of the larger Welfareville Compound which sits on government-owned land and is home to some of the city’s most impoverished residents. Overcrowding and delays in land reform have left its occupants highly vulnerable to both disease and fire.
According to Callos, the fire led to a situation where physical distancing was hard to maintain because “the streets here are so narrow and the flood of people trying to evacuate added to the congestion.”
Police Col. Remigio Sedanto, Mandaluyong police chief, said in an interview that the 30-year-old Santos was seen by his neighbors setting fire to a tarpaulin attached to his house. He also received reports that Santos ignited his own shirt using a kitchen stove.
“The neighbors tried to extinguish the fire but it was too late,” Sedanto said. Village authorities took Santos to the police which then turned him over to the Bureau of Fire Protection.
Motive unclear
Sedanto added that it was not clear why Santos started the fire but Callos said that according to residents, the suspect had a mental illness that could have been a factor.
“During that time, before the fire, there was what you might call a disagreement between [him] and his mother,” he explained.
Mayor Menchie Abalos said on her Facebook page that she was coordinating with Barangay Addition Hills chair Carlito Cernal over aid for displaced residents and health measures that should be practiced at a temporary shelter where they would be staying.
According to Callos, eight people suffered minor injuries that did not require treatment. Mandaluyong’s latest health bulletin showed that Addition Hills had 124 confirmed COVID-19 patients, 94 of whom were still active, with seven deaths. It was placed on lockdown for a week in May to give way to mass testing due to the rising number of coronavirus cases.