Fire displaces 164 families; narrow road, spaghetti wires blamed for delayed response
Fifty four year old Joy Empenado is a Cebu City Hall frontliner in extending assistance to indigents, being part of the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program (Champ).
But now she and nearly 700 other residents of sitios Tinabangay and Huyong-huyong in barangay Alaska Mambaling, need assistance from the city government after a fire razed 84 homes at past 3 am yesterday.
“Ang akong anak nga estudyante sa college, nahurot tanan niyang gamit, iyang bag, mga notebook, libro ug mga uniform. (My son’s things were all burned down including his bag, notebooks, books and uniform),” Empenado said.
Fire Investigator FO3 Lowel Opolentisima said they received the alarm at 3:52 a.m.
The fire was placed “under control” after a little more than an hour and was totally put out at 7:20 a.m. Damage to property was pegged at P600,000.
A Task Force Alpha alarm was raised, drawing all firefighters from Cebu City and neighboring cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu and Minglanilla town.
Nobody was reported hurt but some residents complained of incurring slight injuries after salvaging their belongings from the fire.
Entangled
Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the fire which started at the home of a certain Ester Carbonero.
She wasn’t around when Cebu Daily News visited the fire site.
The houses which were mixed residential were mostly made of light materials, Opolentisima said.
Residents complained that the firefighters arrived later than expected or 30 minutes after the fire broke out.
Opolentisima said they had difficulty entering the fire scene due to narrow roads and the overhead spaghetti wires in the area which entangled their firetrucks.
About 684 persons from 164 families became homeless in yesterday’s fire.
Most of the victims are staying at the sports complex of nearby sitio Viking.
Salvaged
Others chose to build makeshift tents made of canvass near the fire site.
Some residents including children continued scavenging the fire site to look for metals and other personal belongings which could still be salvaged.
“Ang uban intawn nga dili mobiya sa area, ari na lang mi diri sa basketball court. Hangyo lang mi sa mayor nga butangan lang mig mga tent kay mas sayon para namo (For some of us who don’t want to leave the area, we’d like to stay here at the basketball court. We request the mayor to put up tents here so that it will be easier for us),” Empenado said.
Empenado said the residents are concerned over their personal belongings including identification cards of Senior Citizens, Persons With Disabilities and the students.
She said they will request the city government to quickly process their IDs since they need them to obtain discounts and assistance.
The residents also requested help in draining the canals in the area which overflowed due to fire debris that clogged the drainage.
“Amo lang paningkamutan mag-ambag pud mi tanan, mag-timbayayong pud mi tanan ilabi na gyud sa among gi-focus karon nga clean up drive. Mag-bayanihan pud mi nga mga residente tanan. Dili gyud mi tanan mag-dependent pud sa gobyerno. Ang amo magtinabangay pud mi (We will work on contributing and helping each other especially on our focus of doing clean up drives in the fire site. We, residents will be working together. We won’t depend on the government for everything we need. We will also help each other),” Empenado said.
Ocular inspection
The Department of Social Welfare and Services also distributed breakfast and lunch for the fire victims yesterday.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said the priority is to provide proper evacuation for the fire victims.
He said access to the road leading to the fire site is okay except for the overhead spaghetti wires which delayed the entry of fire trucks.
“Ang dalan dili man ingon gamay, dili man huot (The road is not really small, it’s not narrow),” he said.
While not discounting the idea of re-blocking the area, Rama said an ocular inspection is needed to determine if the site needs to be re-blocked before the fire victims are allowed to occupy the area anew.
The lot where the houses are located is part of the Slum Improvement and Resettlement Project of the city government.
Rama said social workers will also conduct an inventory of the affected families who will receive material and financial assistance. /Jose Santino S. Bunachita, Correspondent
