CEBU City Hall will directly extend its assistance to the Lahug fire victims and will not coordinate with Barangay Captain Mary Ann de los Santos.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña assured that the families will get the standard assistance the City gives all fire victims, including food and construction materials.

Sun.Star accepts donations for victims of Typhoon Ondoy

“We already distributed food and tomorrow we’ll distribute the construction materials. She doesn’t need the City, right? She keeps bragging that we’re not helping her. So now, let her prove herself. Now is the time to prove herself,” the mayor said.

“She’s lying through her teeth saying that we’re not helping her, so let her do her thing,” he continued.

Aside from placing the area under a state of calamity, City Hall also distributed beddings for families now staying at the barangay gym.

Independent

The barangay, for its part, will be giving housing materials worth P500,000 for the victims.

“We are literally building houses for them…It is our decision to give the housing materials for the victims. I don’t have to ask for the City Government as our barangay is independent and autonomous,” de los Santos said.

Families displaced by the fire, however, are appealing to officials to set aside their conflicts for the meantime just so their needs could be attended to.

“They should not sacrifice the people’s welfare. They were chosen by the people to serve,” a resident who refused to be named told Sun.Star Cebu.

In random interviews, fire victims said City Hall should help them, regardless of de los Santos’s political affiliation.

Damage

A total of 32 houses were razed while five more were damaged by the fire on Sunset Drive corner Gorordo Ave. last Tuesday night.

A total of 65 families and 250 individuals have been displaced.

Because most of the structures were two-storey and made of mixed materials, SFO 3 Antonio Gonzales said the estimated property damage has been raised to P6.7 million from P2.2 million.

Gonzales said six persons will be invited to help in the investigation.

He said that based on his investigation, the fire started at the house owned by David Magno.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Gonzales said he is verifying information that an unattended candle sparked the blaze.

No one died or got seriously hurt but a nearby school had to suspend its morning classes because students were vomiting due to the fumes from burnt houses.

Under repair

At City Hall yesterday, Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. confirmed that four fire trucks from the different sub-stations, including Lahug, are undergoing repair.

He said, though, that he has long instructed City Fire Marshall Esmael Codilla to request for a water tanker from the Department of Public Services (DPS) and to assign these to the stations that have defective trucks.

Pe, chairman of the council committee on public order and safety, said he will ask Codilla to explain tomorrow why Lahug did not get a water tanker.

He also pointed out that Codilla never brought up the matter during the regular meeting of the Police Coordinating Advisory Council every Friday.

Driver’s safety

But Codilla said he informed the City about the situation.

City Hall, through the Department of Public Services, provided a water tanker for the fire sub-station in Pardo.

The water tanker, however, was recalled upon Codilla’s request, citing the safety of the personnel who will drive the tanker.

Codilla said the tanker has no pump that could generate high pressure for the water to come out when a fire breaks out.

“The tanker cannot serve as the first responder because it doesn’t have a pump. The person driving the tanker might just get beaten up by residents for failing to put out
the fire,” Codilla said.