Fire hits residential area in Cebu City

Fire gobbles up at least 100 houses in Sitio Kanipaan, Barangay Sawang Calero, in Cebu City before midnight on Thursday. Photo by Benjie Talisic, Inquirer Visayas

CEBU CITY– At least 700 people were left homeless in a fire that struck a densely populated area in Sitio Kanipaan, Barangay Sawang Calero, Cebu City shortly before midnight on Thursday.

The fire lasted for over an hour and razed to the ground around 100 houses made of light materials, said Fire Superintendent Ceasar Patrocinio, the Cebu provincial fire marshal, and ground commander.

The fire started in the home of Mario Fernandez at 11:28 p.m. and quickly spread.

It was placed under control over an hour later, at 12:50 a.m. on Friday.

Patrocinio said they had yet to determine the cause of fire since the house of Fernandez had no electricity.

Only Gestoni Fernandez, nephew of the house owner, was at home when the fire broke out, Patrocinio said.

Patrocinio added that since the destroyed houses were mostly made of light materials, the damage was initially placed at P2 million.

Sawang Calero Barangay Captain Ariel Yburan called the barangay council at dawn on Friday for an emergency meeting to declare a state of calamity in the barangay.

The declaration will enable the village to use its calamity fund to assist the fire victims, now housed in barangay shelters.

Among those rescued were 42 children housed at the nearby compound of the Missionaries of the Poor, a Catholic religious order.  /muf