Another Cebu fire razes 200 houses

CEBU CITY—At least 400 families on Friday lost their homes in a fire that destroyed over 200 houses in Barangay Luz, a densely populated urban poor village here.

The fire broke out past 3 p.m. at the house of Carmen Villegas in Sitio Sto. Niño. It quickly spread to three other communities where houses were made of light materials and built close to each other.

Rian Tante, chief of Barangay Luz, said village officials were investigating what caused the fire.

Tante said most residents of the village were out to watch the live showing of a segment of a popular noontime TV show on Cabantan Street before the fire struck.

The village chief said an hour after the crew of the TV program packed up, the fire broke out about 50 meters from where the live show was held.

The area’s narrow roads made it tough for fire trucks to come in. The fire victims were given temporary shelter in two public schools in the village, the village hall and a gymnasium.

Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama also ordered city hall officials to cancel their rest days yesterday and today to help the fire victims.

The national government is in the process of modernizing its fire fighting equipment and capacity but a successful bid to supply fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment to the Bureau of Fire Protection, an agency under the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), is on hold.

President Aquino said in a recent speech in Concepcion, Tarlac, that the country “needs to double the number of fire engines or fire trucks in the country.”

“We have, on average, fire trucks as old as 20 years old and that’s the average age,” Mr. Aquino was quoted as saying in a speech in his home province.

The DILG recently conducted a bidding for fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment that Mr. Aquino said resulted in lower prices for fire engines from P9 million to P5 million per unit.

In the winning bid, private firm Kolonwel Trading and a Korean partner, Hubei Jiangan Special Automobile Co. Ltd., offered to sell 76 fire trucks for a total of P47.9 million, about P2 million lower than the contract cost of P50.7 million. With reports from Chito O. Aragon and Edison delos Angeles, Inquirer Visayas