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Friday, June 15, 2007
Man with polio trapped in fire
By Jovy S. Taghoy
With Linette C. Ramos
CEBU CITY -- Two fires hit Cebu City Thursday, leaving a polio victim in Barangay Day-as dead.
Rescuers from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and investigators from the Homicide Section found the body of Raul “Rolly” Tura, 41, among the ruins of the fire on D. Jakosalem St.
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City Hall’s disaster council listed at least 188 individuals who were left homeless. The fire gutted 10 houses and affected 25 families. The fire, reported at 3:25 p.m., also damaged the sitio’s chapel.
Four hours earlier in Sitio Banawa, Barangay Guadalupe, a five-year-old girl rescued her younger brother and another boy from a burning house past 11 a.m.
Chevaune Julbe, 5, did not hesitate to save her brother Nathaniel, 4, and their three-year-old relative Stefan Ramirez when she noticed that the house, owned by Stefan’s parents Violeta and Jose, caught fire.
Chevaune, a Kinder 2 pupil in Banawa, said that Nathaniel and Stefan were playing with matches inside the house.
“Pagsaka nako, nagduwa man sila og posporo unya nag-aso unya dako na ang kayo. Mao to ako silang giligtas (When I went up, I saw them playing with matches, and then we all saw smoke and flames. That’s when I saved them),” Chevaune told reporters.
Alone
“Ayaw na to usba, ha? (Don’t do that again, ok?),” Chevaune also told Stefan, who was sitting behind her.
The Bureau of Fire Protection received the call for help from Banawa at 11:26 a.m. and declared the fire under control after two minutes of firefighting.
The house was destroyed but the fire failed to damage the other houses nearby. Damage to property was pegged at P25,000.
Neighbors told reporters that Stefan was left alone in the house as his parents were working in a canteen at the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Lapu-Lapu City.
Stefan was left in the care of his grandmother, who lives in an adjacent house.
Stefan has two sisters, 8 and 11, but both were still in school when the fire occurred.
The Cebu City Fire Department will invite Stefan’s parents for questioning.
Second case
As to the fire in Day-as, Raul’s younger brother, Mariano, 36, was the one who identified the body.
Raul Tura’s death happened just five days after a fire in Sitio Little Dalaguete in Barangay San Nicolas killed 17-year-old Rodel Bedyot, a houseboy of one of the victims.
Raul was left alone in the house, while Mariano and his other brother worked.
The fire was believed to have started at the adjacent portion of their two-story duplex house, occupied by his relative Edwin Miñoza.
The Cebu City Fire Department is still looking into the possibility that an electrical short-circuit caused the fire.
The fire department, though, is also verifying reports that there were people inside Miñoza’s space that were allegedly in a pot session.
Narrow roads
Cebu City Fire Marshal Esmael Codilla said the fire was tapped at 3:25 p.m. and was immediately declared a third-alarm blaze.
It was declared under control 22 minutes later.
Fire investigator Felix Romero estimated the damage to property at P750,000.
As with many other fires, narrow access roads were the main problem encountered by firefighters.
While a state of calamity can’t be declared in Sitio Upper Day-as yet, food and other assistance will be extended to the families who lost their homes.
Packed meals were distributed to the fire victims Thursday, as well as cooking utensils, blankets, water jugs, canned goods and several kilos of rice.
Help
Cebu City Hall will continue to provide the families with packed meals in the next three days, said Alvin Santillana, administrative officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council.
Councilor Gerardo Carillo, chairman of the City Council committee on social services, proposed a resolution declaring a state of calamity in Upper Day-as, but the council will act on it on Wednesday yet, during their regular session.
He said, though, that even without the declaration, the City will extend P10,000 cash and burial assistance to the family of Raul Tura, who perished in the fire.
Construction materials will also be distributed to the victims so they can rebuild their homes on the lots they were occupying. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Davao. (June 15, 2007 issue)
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