1 dead, student injured as fires hit 2 Cebu areas

One person died while another was injured in one of two separate fires that hit a residential area in Cebu City and a building in Liloan town on Friday.

In Cebu City, Giovanni Copio was declared dead on arrival at the Cebu City Medical Center after he fainted trying to save his belongings from the fire.

Liezel Costanilla, a third-year-high school student, was taken to the same hospital for treatment of second degree burns.

The fire, the second to occur in the Metro Cebu area on Friday, allegedly started at the house of Danilo Copio, a relative of Giovanni, in Barangay Guadalupe at 12:42 p.m.

Cebu City Fire Marshall Aderson Comar said at least 13 houses were razed and two other houses were damaged.

The fire, which was raised to general alarm, was placed under control after eight minutes, said Comar. A firewall in the area had prevented the fire from spreading to the neighborhood, he said.

Damage to property was estimated at P375,000, Comar said.

Hours earlier, at 12: 15 a.m., fire gutted a two-story building in Barangay Yati in Liloan.

FO3 Edwin Jopia of the Liloan fire station said the fire also gutted two multicab vehicles and two motorcycles.

The ground floor of the building was used as manufacturing and display area for furniture, while the family of the owner stayed on the second floor.

Liloan fire investigators said damage to property was estimated at P300,000 but the owner of the building placed the damage at P1 million.

Jopia said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.