The fire was so huge that I felt like it ran after me.”
So said 66-year-old ex-policeman Crisenciano Lovebrado as he cuddled a 17-inch image of the Sto. Niño, one of few items that he managed to salvage from a fire that razed nearly 100 homes and displaced just as many families.
The fire broke out in sitio Pulangbukid in barangay Alang-Alang, Mandaue City, at 1:40 p.m. yesterday.
Firefighters found it difficult to enter the area since it was behind private lot fences.
The only entrance was less than a meter wide and about 50 meters long in between two private establishments along UN Avenue.
Mandaue City firefighters had to secure assistance from neighboring towns and cities to douse the fire.
They had to climb the concrete fences about eight feet high to train their hoses to the fire.
Precaution
Samuel Sala of the barangay Mabolo Fire Brigade suffered minor burns in the arms.
SFO1 Roy Garcia, fire investigator, told reporters that the fire originated from the house of Pacita Mansueto, who shouted for help after seeing flames, spread throughout the ceiling.
Some residents climbed up the fences and threw their belongings on the other side.
About 50 meters away, a gasoline station and an LPG refilling station were closed as a precaution by their owners.
Most of the fire victims placed their appliances and other belongings in the islands and sidewalks along UN Avenue, which were closed to all passing vehicles except for the fire trucks.
Lovebrado told Cebu Daily News that he was several meters away from their house when the fire broke out.
He said his son told him not to go back to their house since the fire was spreading fast.
’Extension of my life’
But Loverado insisted in going back to recover the Sto. Niño image given by his good friend.
“I don’t care if everything else was lost to the fire because this image is an extension of my life,” he said.
On grabbing the image above its rattan cabinet, Lovebrado said he hugged it tight and whispered to it, “I hope no lives are lost in the fire.”
He said he considered the image miraculous after his youngest son, who was 3 years old at the time, saw the image going down the rattan cabinet and played with him.
Myrna Amistad, a 45-year-old housewife, rushed out of her house dragging her 9-year-old grandson and a red backpack containing important documents to safety.
Amistad, who wore a yellow dress and green blazer, cried while seated on a plastic stall in the center island of UN Avenue as she saw smoke coming out of what was once her house and other houses near it.
She said she was about to go to their church in sitio Sudlon, barangay Maguikay, and left her grandson sleeping in the house.
DOTA boys
When she went out, she was shocked to see people running around and screaming for help.
Aside from her son and the red backpack, there was very little she managed to salvage.
Her other son, 20-year-old Marlon, managed to recover other items along with his friends who were dubbed “Dota boys.”
Amistad said five of her siblings’ houses and her mother’s house were burned down.
She said the family house was the first one built in the area during the first Edsa Revolution.
They rented the house at P35 per month but they stopped paying after typhoon Ruping in 1990 on learning that the area wa a government-owned lot.
Barangay captain Mylene Sanches said most of the families were beneficiaries of the 6.5-hectare relocation site in barangay Paknaan.
“We don’t have a gym or a school temporarily house them but we will just mount tents here in the area,” she said.
Mayor Jonas Cortes, who went to the fire site, said they will encourage the beneficiaries to settle in a relocation site they have prepared for them since it is already habitable in some portion.
He said he will convene the disaster committee to assess the incident and give immediate assistance such as food and housing materials in coordination with the the city social welfare services office.