Fire victims save Niño images

Nene Mahayahay, 35, snatched her cherished image of the Sto. Niño as she ran out of a burning house.

In tears, she watched flames consume her home in sitio Ponce Dos, barangay Carreta in Cebu City yesterday.

She was preparing lunch when a neighbor shouted the alarm, sending other residents in panic.

The housewife said she ran out with only enough time to snatch the religious icon along with one rubber shoe, two T-shirts and underwear hanging on the clothes line outside.

She was home alone that day. Her husband was at work as a company driver and two teenage children were in school.

“I don’t think they even know our house is gone,” Mahayahay told Cebu Daily News in Cebuano.

By 1 p.m., the flames had subsided with thick smoke covering the neighborhood, including a small basketball court.

Residents splashed water on adjacent walls or carried belongings to the barangay hall for safekeeping – television sets, sofas and sacks of clothes.

Seventy-year old Patria Kahilaya was only wearing a malong, a cotton wrap, as she was washing clothes when the fire erupted.

She tried to tun back to their house to save the family’s belongings, but neighbors stopped her from running into the burning building.

Kahaliya, who does laundry jobs to help support her seven children and six grand children, said only the family’s kitchenware was saved.

She rushed to Carreta Elementary School to check on her granchildren who study there.

Pupils were quickly discharged as soon as the fire alarm bell was rung.

Helen Escotoning, the school principal, said the kids were told to evacuate and that teachers and students were familiar with the fire drills they had practised before.

Classrooms were drenched with the water of fire hoses.

Escotoning said that some books were damaged by the water as well as the canopy on the east part of the school.

She was also carrying an image of Sr. Sto Nino as she went around checking on classrooms.

Other teachers said they were grateful no one was harmed even if they suffered property damage.

Today’s priority will be a big cleanup.

“All classes will resume (Thursday),” she said.