Cebu fire kills 2 kids, leaves 80 families homeless

CEBU BLAZE Hundreds of residents stay on a vacant lot as fire razes their houses in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City, on Monday morning. —JUNJIE MENDOZA

CEBU CITY — Two children were killed in a more than two-hour fire that razed a residential area in the village of Ermita here on Monday morning.

The charred bodies of Jovielyn Digman, 9, and her brother, John Mark, 2, were pulled out from the debris of their two-story house in Sitio Kawit at past 9 a.m., an hour after the blaze was put out.

Chief Insp. Noel Nelson Ababon, Cebu City fire marshall, said the victims were on the second floor of their house when the family’s gas stove on the ground floor exploded. Their parents, Ida Alolod and Joel Digman, managed to escape the fire but suffered second degree burns.

‘Pungko-pungko’

“The mother was cooking when the gas stove exploded. Unfortunately, the kids were not able to move out of their house,” Ababon said.

The couple had been running a “pungko-pungko” or small self-service eateries, reports said.

Eight other residents were taken to a hospital after they suffered burns .

The Department of Social Welfare and Services in Cebu said at least 80 families (408 people) from 52 houses were displaced by the fire that lasted for over two hours.

State of calamity

The Ermita barangay council has placed Sitio Kawit under a state of calamity to allow them to use the village’s quick response fund to address the needs of fire victims.

Among the victims was village chief Mark Miral, whose two-story house was destroyed.

“Although losing everything I worked hard for is difficult to swallow, I’m duty bound to help my constituents and neighbors in Ermita,” he said.

Supt. Ceasar Patrocinio, Cebu provincial fire marshal, said firemen had difficulty in putting out the fire because the area was congested. —Reports from Ador Vincent S. Mayorl, Morexette Marie B. Erram and Benjie B. Talisic