HOMELESS Some residents of Sitio Asinan in Barangay Kasanyangan, Zamboanga City, on Sunday morning sift through the debris of their homes razed by fire on Saturday night. —PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY MHOY BUAH
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — One person died, two others were injured and at least 380 families, or roughly 1,485 individuals, were displaced in a fire that razed to the ground 240 houses in the village of Kasanyangan of this city at 8:16 p.m. on Saturday, fire officials said.
Benahar Ismael Anding, 31, a resident of the subvillage of Asinan in Kasanyangan, was trying to help put out the fire by throwing pails of water on the roofs of nearby houses when he accidentally stepped on a live wire. He died on the spot, according to Supt. Christopher Morales, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) fire marshal in the city.
Anding’s companion, Sali Omar, was thrown off the ground by the sudden power surge. He escaped death but suffered burns on his body, Morales said.
Another resident, a certain Ivan Mala, also sustained a puncture wound from a nail on his left forearm while trying to evacuate from the raging fire.
Maria Socorro Rojas, the city social welfare officer, said some of those displaced found shelter in the houses of relatives, while others were evacuated to Kasanyangan’s barangay hall.
Tangled wires
Morales said it took them more than two hours to put the fire under control, with the blaze finally put out and declared under control at about 11 p.m.
“It was very challenging for us to respond that night because of the low-lying tangled wires penetrating the fire scene, preventing us from entering the area. Besides, we could not find any available fire hydrant where to source the water,” Morales said.
Morales said the estimated damage to property reached P3 million.
The BFP found an electrical short circuit due to the overloading of electrical lines as the source of the fire, which started on the second floor of the house of Jade Halil before it spread and gobbled up the neighboring houses.
Morales said the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative failed to systematize the wiring and line connections in the area, with cables and wires tangled like spaghetti, bringing undue hazards to residents.
“These [tangled wires] definitely caused hazard, obstruction, and delays in our firefighting operations,” he said.
The site of the fire was only 800 meters from Bamboo Village, a transitory housing for the Badjao community displaced by the siege of Zamboanga City in September 2013, which was also hit by a fire on Feb. 20 this year.
The fire in Bamboo Village gutted more than 300 houses and two mosques within a 5,000-square-meter area where a community of mostly Badjaos lived. The incident killed one person, whom villagers suspected to be the cause of the fire.