Ermita fire leaves 400 families homeless; infant killed

I tried kicking the door, but the door wouldn’t budge. When I realized that my sister was no longer crying, I just ran out of the house.”

This was how 13-year-old Zoren Flores recalled Saturday night when he lost his 11-month-old sister, Mary Claire, in a fire that wiped out a big chunk of an   urban poor community  sitio Bato-Carbon in barangay Ermita in Cebu City.

Over  400 families were left homeless.

“Wala ra jud ko kadala ug gamit kay gahuna-huna man gud ko sa akong igsuon,” he said.

(I wasn’t able to save anything because I was only thinking about saving my sister.)”

The fire broke out past 10 p.m.

Mary Claire was supposed to turn one  year old tomorrow.

Zoren was the one helping his father, Toribio Flores Jr., in taking care of Mary Claire since his mother died after giving birth to her. Mary Claire was the fifth and the youngest child of Toribio.

Zoren said  he was sleeping in the second floor of their house near the room where his baby sister was asleep. Awakened by the commotion when huge flames started creeping engulfing their house, he stood up and frantically looked for his baby sister.

Zoren said his father fainted when he heard about the fate of his youngest daughter whose charred remains were recovered later.

Toribio’s sister, Susan Kangtee, said that her brother had put his daughter to sleep when he went out of the house to buy some diapers. Susan said that Toribio was looking for his other son and then stopped by a neighbor’s house to watch TV when he heard from someone that their house was on fire. He dashed to his house only to be told of the tragic news.

Arson investigators estimate the damage to property to reach a million pesos.

According to FO3  Lowel Opolentisima, the fire started at 10:20 p.m and was placed under control by 11:27 p.m. It was declared fire out at 2:09 a.m.

The area was congested and had a narrow pathway. Most houses were made of light materials.

Based on the record of the fire department, the fire began at the two- storey house of Toribio Flores Jr., a laborer in Carbon Public Market.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the Cebu City Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) documented 237 total number of houses burned, while 12 houses were partially burned.

Dr. Ester Concha head of DSWS said 462 families or 2,076 individuals were affected by the fire.

“This is subject for validation,” Concha said. As of yesterday afternoon DSWS personnel continued their validation of the number fire victims affected and properties damaged.

Packed meals were distributed by DSWS personnel yesterday morning. The food assistance will go on until tomorrow.

The fire victims were evacuated in Barangay Ermita Sports Complex.

“The evacuation center is just sufficient to cater the fire victims since some of them went back to their partially damaged house,” Antonieto Flores said yesterday while assisting the fire victims at the Sports Complex. /Kristine Ann M. Fernandez and Tweeny M. Malinao