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Thursday, August 31, 2006
Appliances cause 2 blazes
Two fires hit Lapu-Lapu City yesterday, damaging P1.02 million worth of property, including the Philippine Air Force officers’ two-story quarters inside the Mactan Benito Ebuen Air Base.
No one was hurt in both fires.
Lapu-Lapu City Bureau of Fire Protection investigation section chief SFO1 Atilano Berido said the fire in the air base was declared a third-alarm blaze at 2:25 p.m. yesterday.
However, firefighters managed to control it five minutes later.
He said an overheated air-conditioning unit triggered the blaze that started in the room of Lt. Ranjie Lao.
The fire razed all 16 furnished rooms on the second floor.
Most of the officers were on duty when the fire broke out.
Overheated
At 10:35 a.m., an overheated refrigerator compressor triggered a fire that gutted the house of Julieta Tuñacao in Sitio Arca, Barangay Pusok.
Berido reported that the fire was controlled three minutes later, but destroyed P20,000 worth of property.
At noon yesterday, welding works for the renovation of a building—ironically, to make it less fire-prone—led to a blaze that destroyed a portion of the structure on P. del Rosario Ext.
Jesus Viloria, owner and operator of Manila Modiste Driving School, said the blaze destroyed six rooms on the roofdeck of the three-story building, which is also a boarding house, and razed close to P300,000 worth of property.
The Cebu City Fire Department received the alarm at 12:18 p.m. and controlled the blaze in a few minutes.
Cebu City Fire Marshall Esmael Codilla said sparks from the welding works flew to the garments on the clothesline and started the fire.
Some workers were replacing the wooden roof of the third floor with galvanized iron, so it would be less fire-prone.
Since the Vilorias went to Sto. Rosario Parish and most of the boarders were in school or at work when the fire began, no one noticed the smoke right away.
Safety rules
San Antonio Barangay Captain Daido Abcede said the fire alarmed owners and occupants of adjacent dorms and boarding houses.
SFO2 Alikasem Espinola injured his hand when he broke a glass to open one of the rooms.
For his part, Codilla noted the absence of separate entry and exit passageways for building occupants.
He will ask Viloria to visit the fire department so they could study possible corrections to make the structure safer.
Viloria’s boarders, saddened by what happened to their home away from their homes, got help from friends and officemates in clearing their damaged rooms. (OCP/CYR)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 31, 2006 issue)
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