Cebu fire razes 95 houses

CEBU CITY (2nd update, 12:14 p.m.) -- Ninety-five houses were destroyed and 11 others were damaged during a fire that hit a residential area in Barangay Suba here, Friday morning.

Officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the fire broke out at the house of Gino Ybañez and Tessy Tabunal at 7:16 a.m. in Block 1 and 2 (formerly sitio Wakwak), in Barangay Suba, not Sawang Calero as reported earlier.

The BFP said three people were injured in the fire, which spread fast as the houses were mostly made of light materials.

A fire victim, who identified himself as Edmund Ababa, said the fire was caused by an unattended gas lamp at the house of Tabunal.

The fire, which was put under control at 8:10 a.m., was raised to general alarm -- the highest level of fire alarm that calls for all fire trucks in the city to help put out the blaze.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire as of this posting.

Fire officials estimated the damage to property at P1.1 million.

Barangay Suba chairman Rogelio Resurreccion said the fire victims were evacuated to barangay's sports complex and fishport.

He appealed for assistance from the public.

The fire is the fourth one that hit Cebu this month, the Fire Prevention Month.

At 4:40 p.m. Thursday, a fire broke out at the container yard of the Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corp. (formerly Sulpicio Lines Inc.) at Pier 7 at the North Reclamation Area (NRA) in Mandaue City.

No one was hurt but the fire damaged P6,000 worth of scrap items.

At 12:15 p.m. of the same day, the house of a certain Onan Panlabanon caught fire.

The fire destroyed some P3,000 worth of building materials.

On Wednesday evening, the crane of a cargo barge docked at Pier 7 at the NRA in Mandaue City also caught fire.

The damage was pegged at P50,000. (Tashuana Alemania/Sunnex)