Fire destroys 23 homes in Mandaue City depressed area

Unidentified person watch as one of the house roof falls down after a fire destroyed it in sitio Sapa-Sapa Barangay Subangdaku Mandaue City. CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Fire destroyed 23 houses and damaged another in a densely populated urban poor village in Subangdaku, Mandaue City on Thursday afternoon.

The city’s social welfare office has been determining the number of families displaced in the fire in Sitio (sub-village) Sapa-Sapa II, Barangay (village) Subangdaku, as of this posting.

The city government has set up tents near the fire scene to serve as temporary shelter for the fire victims, said Subangdaku village chief Ernie Manatad.

“We will provide food for tonight and temporary shelter for three days,” he said in Cebuano.

Nilo Cosido, investigator of the Bureau of Fire Protection, said the fire started from the house of Lorna Luchaves Narro at 1 p.m. It was put under control about 30 minutes later.

He said they had yet to determine the cause of fire.

This was the third fire that broke out in Sitio Sapa-Sapa II since 2002.