Police files

LAHUG FIRE

A SUBSTANDARD Christmas lights that was left unplugged may have caused the fire in barangay Lahug, Cebu City, yesterday.

Eight houses were destroyed during the fire. Damage was pegged at P100,000.

The fire was believed to have started at the house of Innocencia Auditor, SFO3 Fortunato Bucia, chief investigator of the Cebu City Department, said.

Auditor, a laundry woman, denied that the fire started in her house. She said she unplugged the Christmas lights before she left home.

Bucia said it was the first fire incident in Cebu City this year involving Christmas lights.

SFO1 Fernando Rota, Guadalupe fire substation commander of Guadalupe fire station, was injured after a radiator of a fire truck overflowed and hot water spilled into his left hand.

Nonito Belando, a resident of the barangay, was also hurt after debris fell on him.

The fire broke out at 12:05 p.m.

Bucia said it took 34 minutes before firefighters controlled the fire because of the narrow road  leading to the fire scene./CORRESPONDENT CHITO O. ARAGON

HOAX BOMB THREAT

CLASSES at the Canduman Elementary School in Mandaue City was disrupted yesterday following a bomb threat that later turned out to be a hoax.

Police said that around 9 a.m., Gemma Mercado, a grade 4 teacher, found a note in the bookshelf of her classroom with a note that a bomb was planted in the school and in her house. The note also said a bomb was also planted in the house of Mercado’s sibling.

Mercado informed her co-workers of the threat.

Parents rushed to the school and brought their children home.

Members of the Canduman police station and the Special Weapons and Tactics in Mandaue inspected the school but no bomb was found.

Police also did not find bomb in the house of the teacher and her sibling.

Investigation is ongoing to trace where the note came from, said police./REPORTER JUCELL MARIE P. CUYOS