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Friday, August 18, 2006
Locked-up woman dies in fire
By Rose O. Verzosa
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A fire broke out near the Cebu International Convention Center yesterday morning, killing a 65-year-old woman and destroying 22 houses made of light materials, estimated to be worth P650,000.
City Social Welfare Officer Candida Comaingking said there were about 76 families who lost their homes in the blaze, but the authorities still have to verify this figure.
The incident led to the suspension of classes at the adjoining school, Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion (CIC), which was holding their first grading periodical exams.
It also temporarily disrupted court hearings at the Mandaue Hall of Justice.
Fire Marshall Oscar Mayol said they received the fire alarm at 8:30 a.m. and he immediately declared it as a general alarm because there are several houses made of light materials within the area, which lies within Barangays Guizo and Tipolo.
Aside from CIC and the Hall of Justice, the site is also near the Guizo Elementary School and the Tipolo National High School.
Five minutes after declaring a general alarm, Mayol downgraded it to a third-alarm fire after observing that the flames were already manageable.
The fire was declared under control within 15 minutes from the time firefighters responded to the alarm.
Fire investigator Roy Garcia believed that Necesaria Caray, 65, could have been trapped by the fire because her house was located in the interior portion, just beside the CIC wall. Her burned body was found about three meters away from where her house was.
Garcia said her only way out would have been to proceed towards the road, but the fire came from that direction.
Cerilo Caray, the victim’s husband, admitted in an ABS-CBN report that he went out to buy medicine and locked his wife inside the house, because she was suffering from a nervous breakdown.
Garcia said it was possible that the victim managed to get out of the house, but was later trapped by the fire.
The fire reportedly originated from the house of Anita Elorde, near C.D. Seno St., but investigators could not yet determine what could have caused it. Nobody was inside the house at that time.
Garcia said Elorde told him that she turned off all appliances and lights before she left her house yesterday morning.
But she also told the fire investigator that there are several electric wires connected to the other neighboring houses that were hanging just outside her house, which could have sparked the fire.
Comaingking said emergency relief goods from City Hall and from the Department of Social Welfare and Services were distributed to the victims yesterday.
Guizo Barangay Captain Jesus Neri said the victims can temporarily stay in Guizo Elementary School.
Mandaue City Hall has issued demolition notices to the owners and occupants of 213 illegal structures in “a danger area along Mantuyong-Tipolo creek.”
The City’s demolition team has started demolishing the houses, starting at the back of the unfinished Uniwide building.
But Neri said the houses that were burned yesterday were not among those that were scheduled to be demolished. (ROV)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 18, 2006 issue)
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