|
Friday, February 02, 2007
17 shops razed in 2-hour, P3 million blaze
By Jovy S. Taghoy
CEBU CITY -- Seventeen establishments, mostly owned by Chinese-Filipino businessmen, were razed in a two-hour fire that hit one of the oldest buildings in the downtown Cebu City Thursday dawn.
No one was reported hurt or died in the fire, but 12 establishments in the Velez Building and five others at the adjacent building were already gutted by the time the firefighters managed to control blaze two hours and 20 minutes later.
The Velez Building, which was reportedly built in the early 1900s, stands at the corner of Lincoln, Manalili and Plaridel Sts. in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City.
Superintendent Esmael Codilla, fire marshal of the Bureau of Fire Protection in Cebu City, considered the incident as the biggest fire so far to hit the city this year.
He initially pegged the damage to property at P3 million.
Codilla said the fire spread quickly and gobbled the establishments because 80 percent of the structures were made of decades' old woods and most of the products sold were highly flammable such as paints, oils, plastics, candles, shoes and guitars.
Joni Chan, president of the Manalili, Lincoln and Progreso Business Association, said the fire affected the city's guitar industry.
Only three of the 12 guitar stores are now left.
These stores have been around for 50 to 60 years already, Chan told Sun.Star Cebu.
A third alarm was immediately raised when the fire department received the call for assistance at 3:58 a.m.
The status was elevated to a general alarm at 5 a.m. so that fire trucks from the neighboring cities of Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay helped the Cebu City fire department in putting off the blaze.
The fire was declared under control at 6:18 a.m. but it took firefighters the whole day Thursday to extinguish the fire because some combustible materials rekindled from time to time.
Policemen were also deployed at the fire scene to prevent looters from getting inside.
Fire investigator SFO3 Felix Romero said initial information he gathered showed that the fire started at the second floor of Classic Guitar occupied by Kakua Marketing reportedly owned by a Taiwanese.
It was not yet determined what caused the fire, Romero said, but firecrackers allegedly stocked inside Kakua Marketing may have started the blaze.
Strong winds fanned flames, which spread to the building across Velez.
The narrow road along Lincoln St. and the low water pressure at the fire hydrants made the job more difficult for the firefighters, Codilla said in an interview with reporters.
The crowd also became a problem as they blocked approaching fire trucks.
SFO3 Romero said of the 17 establishments, 16 of these were destroyed and one was damaged.
At the building's Lincoln side were Classic Guitar, Pan de Rose Bakery, Cebu Guitar, New Hamtat Trading, G.O. Marketing, Vision Enterprises, Chua Yao Enterprises, Ong Kin King Warehouse and Store and Kokua Marketing.
At the Manalili side, the fire ate up JLY Shoe Center and Cebu Sunrise Minimart, while Cebu King's Trading Inc. on Plaridel St. was also razed.
At the building across Velez Building, Romero identified the destroyed establishments as GGM General Merchandise, L.C. Remedios Guitar, Andrea KC Marketing, Nazareth Children Center and Tiong Bee.
Cebu Champion Hardware Inc., owned by Presidential Assistant for Visayas Felix Guanzon, and two other establishments nearby were saved by a huge firewall.
Filomeno Lim, president of the Cebu Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, hopes the City Government will assist them in securing business permits and other needed documents.
They will also welcome financial assistance, Lim said in a radio dyLA interview.
Codilla took exemption to insinuations that the firefighters focused their efforts on saving the establishment owned by Guanzon.
"We covered everything. Wala mi gipili," Codilla said.
He said Guanzon, who was at the fire scene Thursday, only inquired from him if the latter's establishment is also in danger of being swallowed by the fire. (Sun.Star Cebu/With MMM)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (February 2, 2007 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Gunmen attack jail, spring 3 suspected bombers