ILOILO City – On the first day of year 2020 fire razed a total of 20 houses in this city, Iloilo and Capiz provinces.
In Boracay Island, Malay, Aklan fire damaged three houses four hours before 2019 came to a close.
Families living in all these affected houses either moved to evacuation centers or sought shelter with relatives and friends.
Here, fire struck 14 houses in Zone 4, Barangay Sambag, Jaro district at around 9 a.m. yesterday. Ten of these houses were totally gutted.
With the quick response of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), the fire was extinguished in a little over 30 minutes.
The New Year blaze was electrical in nature, preliminary investigation of the Iloilo City Fire Station showed.
The totally destroyed house were owned by Baquio Rogador, Totong Depra, Jonathan Gancia, Estrella Melecoton, John Libuna, Leonito Libuna, Elmer Macaya, Celso Conde, and Albert Compliza while the partially damaged ones were owned by Fred Marbebe, Florence Paglumutan, Andong Gallardo, and Keneth Rhoy Buenafe.
According to Senior Fire Officer 4
Aquilino Sampiono, the fire originated from the house of Melecoton and quickly
spread to nearby houses made of light material.
BFP declared a “fire out” at around 10:28 a.m.
The fire left an estimated property damage of P150,000.
Some five hours before the Iloilo City fire, a house went up in smoke 29 kilometers down south in Guimbal, Iloilo.
Fire gobbled up a two-storey house in Barangay Nanga, Guimbal at around 3:57 a.m.
Short circuit sparked the fire, according to the Guimbal fire station which estimated the property damage to have reached P1.5 million.
Quick-responding firefighters of the Guimbal fire station contained the blaze from spreading and declared a fire out at around 6:05 a.m.
There were no reported injuries or deaths in these two New Year fires.
In Capiz, fire struck a residential area in Barangay Ilaya, Pontevedra town at around 1:35 p.m.
Five houses were gutted before firemen totally extinguished the fire by around 4:30 p.m.
As of this writing, the BFP was still ascertaining the cause of the fire and the damage incurred.
In the famous holiday island resort of Boracay four hours and 30 minutes before the clock struck 12, fire broke in Sitio Tulubhan, Barangay Manoc-Manoc and razed three houses.
Fire Officer III Franklin Arubang said the blaze started at around 7:30 p.m. in the property of Ruel Santillan who was operating a boardinghouse.
“May isang bahay doon na walang tao dahil halos lahat nasa trabaho. Karamihan mga workers at boarders ang nakatira sa nasunugan,” Arubang said.
The BFP-Boracay substation, Boracay Fire Rescue and Ambulance Volunteers, Boracay Island Water Company, Boracay Tubi System Inc., and Kabalikat Civicom 961 Boracay responded to the fire incident.
“Mahirap tayong makapasok sa nasunugan [kasi] hilly at isolated. Maliit ang daan, brownout at halos 500 meters ang layo sa barangay road,” said Arubang, adding the strong winds from the Sibuyan Sea fanned the fire, causing the flames to spread quickly.
Arson investigators of the BFP have yet to determine the cause of the blaze.
Two days before the New Year celebrations, the BFP in Iloilo City expressed hope there won’t be fire incidents.
But just in case fire erupted, Chief Inspector Christopher Regencia, city fire marshal, said BFP-Iloilo City had 50 fire officers and 12 fire trucks on standby to respond.
These were on top of fire volunteer organizations in the city, said Regencia.
BFP-Iloilo City had been on red alert since Dec. 27.
Regencia said there were no fire incidents in the city since Dec. 24 and he hoped this would be sustained.
December last year BFP-Iloilo recorded five fire incidents. (With a report from Akean Forum/PN)
