Tuesday, March 18, 2008 5 structures razed in Carcar fire
FIVE structures that made up some of the old buildings at the heart of Carcar City were razed in a fire late yesterday afternoon.
Fire investigators have yet to determine what caused the fire, which struck at 4:20 p.m.
FO3 Sergei Mendaros of the Carcar City Fire Station told Sun.Star Cebu last night that the fire destroyed four structures and damaged one house.
A creek separated the fire from the nearby Carcar Elementary School and was a safe distance from the houses.
It took firemen at least 25 minutes to keep the fire from spreading to other structures.
Mendaros said the five structures were not far from the famous Carcar City rotunda, which the city considers its pride along with its old houses.
Mendaros said they have yet to talk to the owners of the houses, saying they were still in shock over what happened.
FO1 Joedyn Opsime of the San Fernando Fire Station reportedly suffered first degree burns.
Seeing that they needed more water and could not keep going back and forth to get water for their truck, the Carcar City Fire Station got help from other stations from San Fernando, City of Naga, Minglanilla, Argao, Sibonga and Aloguinsan.
Mendaros said the fire also caused a traffic jam as the houses were located beside the main street, where all vehicles passing through to other towns traverse.
Police officers from the Carcar City Police Station tried to divert smaller vehicles to a side road. However, bigger trucks could not pass through the narrow road and had to wait until all the fire trucks cleared the main road.
Traffic
Mendaros said traffic stalled for about 45 minutes as the augmenting trucks from the neighboring stations were recalled when the blaze was controlled.
But the local fire fighters of Carcar City stayed to make sure the fire wouldn’t rekindle.
Mendaros said it was windy yesterday, which made it easy for the flames to spread.
