122 families homeless, 3 hurt in Cebu City fire; butane canister refilled with LPG blamed

CEBU CITY, Philippines – At least 122 families lost their homes, and three were injured in a fire that broke out in Barangay (village) Mambaling, one of the densely populated villages in Cebu City, reportedly after a butane canister refilled with liquefied petroleum gas exploded.

This prompted Barangay Mambaling Captain Wilfredo Go to urge the residents of his village to stop using a butane canister refilled with LPG in cooking because of the safety risk.

“Many of my residents and even our family used butane canister refilled with LPG because it is cheaper, but I urge them to stop this practice. Butane canister is disposable, so it’s dangerous to refill it with LPG. My family is now using again a regular LPG tank,” Go said in Cebuano.

The fire broke out at 9:26 a.m., on Tuesday, at the house owned by the Campaner family in Sitio Abya and the fire spread towards the nearby Sitio Pungtod. The fire was raised to the second alarm before it was put under control at 10:10 a.m.

Go said at least 50 houses were destroyed.

Based on partial listing, Go said 122 families or more than 200 individuals were displaced and relocated to the Alaska Elementary School.

Go said he would convene the barangay council later this evening to declare the two sitios under the state of calamity.

The fire department has not released its report as to the cause of fire. But the department reported at least three persons who were injured.  SFM