Naga City fire levels 8 houses

NAGA CITY–A quarrel between mother and son led to a fire that gutted eight houses in barangay (village) Igualdad here early Monday morning, a village official said.

SFO2 Domingo Salcedo Jr., leader of the Bureau of Fire Protection team that went to the village, said firemen responded to a report of the city’s public safety office at past 2 a.m.

He said the fire was put out at past 4 a.m.

Salcedo said initial investigation showed that the fire was “intentional” and started at the house of one Felino Bautista.

Antonio Galido, village chief of Igualdad, said Bautista, 25, had been reported quarrelling with his mother Arlene a few hours before the fire broke out. The barangay official did not say how the fight started.

Galido added Bautista passed by the village outpost at 12:30 a.m. to buy liquor but residents saw him throwing the bottle on the pavement.

Galido said when Bautista went home at 2 a.m., he heard people shouting that there was a fire and saw the blaze at the village’s Zone 5.

The fire immediately spread in the neighborhood where houses are connected with each other and can be reached through alleys.

The city government will assist the families displaced by the fire until their houses are rebuilt, Mayor John Bongat said. /jpv