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Thursday, March 16, 2006
Blaze in 2 towns highlights need
By Jovy S. Taghoy
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A two-year-old girl died while her grandparents suffered burns in a noontime fire that broke out in Sitio Dapdag, Barangay Bugas in the southern town of Badian, Cebu.
In another incident, at least seven stalls in the New Public Market in Sitio Cantecson, Gairan, Bogo were razed last Tuesday night.
The fire in Bogo in northern Cebu was so far the biggest to hit Cebu this month, which was declared by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as Fire Prevention Month.
Damage to property was initially pegged at P600,000.
Bogo Mayor Celestino Martinez III vowed to summon all the firefighters in the town for a meeting on their failure to help in putting out the fire.
Problems
Firefighters from the neighboring towns of Medellin, Daanbantayan, Sogod, Tuburan and Danao City were the ones who responded when the alarm was raised at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday.
SFO2 Nilo Ginuo of the Bogo Fire Station said their two fire trucks were both unserviceable because of mechanical problems. One truck came from fire department and the other belonged to the municipality.
Despite the absence of the fire trucks, Bogo firefighters responded to the alarm but only served as guides to the neighboring firefighters in locating the fire scene.
The fire was contained 20 minutes later, but it destroyed seven stalls, including stores and videoke bars.
No one was hurt.
In Badian, neighbors and policemen, who once again acted as firefighters, found the charred body of two-year-old Karen Rusiana in the burned hut of her grandparents in Sitio Dapdag, Bugas, a mountain barangay some three kilometers away from the town proper.
Assistance
Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia will be giving burial assistance to the Rusiana family. Capitol will also help the couple in rebuilding their house.
Karen’s grandparents identified as Sotero and Agapita, both 84 years old, were taken to the Badian District Hospital for second-degree burns.
The doctors said the couple is out of danger.
SPO4 Vicente Suerte Jr., Badian police deputy chief, told Sun.Star Cebu that the fire broke out at noon but they only received the alarm at 2 p.m.
Suerte said six policemen were dispatched to the area, including the municipal fire truck.
The hut, made out of nipa and coco lumber, however, was already ruined. Only some charred posts were left standing.
The police recovered the body of Karen in the debris.
Lamp
Neighbors told the police that they already brought Sotero and Agapita to the hospital.
Suerte said initial information they gathered revealed that the fire was caused by an unattended kerosene lamp.
Agapita, however, in an ABS-CBN TV Patrol Cebu report, said that somebody intentionally set their house on fire.
Agapita, who has been bedridden for the past four years, said she crawled her way out while shouting for help for somebody to save her granddaughter.
Several neighbors attempted to save Karen but were held back by the flames that already engulfed the entire hut.
“We still saw the child standing, crying out for help,” a neighbor said.
Spared
Karen’s elder brother was spared by the fire because he watched a noontime television show at a neighbor’s house.
Karen’s neighbors blamed her mother, Rodelyn, for leaving the child with Sotero and Agapita.
Karen, who had just turned two last Monday, and her brother were left in the care of their grandparents as Rodelyn reportedly went to Cebu City to work.
Rodelyn learned about the incident only yesterday and immediately went back to Badian.
Bogo town faced a different problem: fire trucks that do not work.
Repair
SFO2 Ginuo explained that the municipal-owned fire truck has been unserviceable since January and is under repair while the BFP-issued fire truck has been in the garage since December.
Last October, fire also hit the commercial area of Bogo, destroying an estimated P5.5 million worth of property.
Governor Garcia said she will extend the same financial assistance to Bogo like what she has given to other towns whose public markets were also gutted by fire.
“You know, it is quite hard for me to call on the mayor of Bogo...But the interest of the greater number will be upheld over narrow partisan biases that have divided us for too long,” she said.
Martinez is the son of the governor’s bitter rivals—former congressman Celestino Martinez Jr., who ran against her in the 2004 elections, and Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (March 16, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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