CEBU City Councilor Joel Garganera is asking the City Market Authority to allow the families affected by the fire in Barangay Ermita to stay longer inside the unfinished Carbon Public Market Unit 2.
While this developed, Barangay Ermita placed the fire-stricken sitios—Bato, Pig Vendor and Castilaan—under a state of calamity.
This will allow the barangay to use its calamity fund to help the 629 families or 2,578 individuals who were left homeless by the fire on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 5.
“I am appealing to whoever is in charge that the fire survivors will be allowed to stay there because it’s near the fire site. Three days is just too short for them,” Garganera said.
Ermita Acting Barangay Captain Efe Rupinta said someone from City Hall informed the fire survivors that they can stay in the market building for only three days.
Rupinta said they will write to the offices concerned to request for an extension.
Most of the affected families are seeking shelter at the barangay gym, while around 50 families opted to stay that the market building.
Rupinta hopes the City Council will also pass a resolution placing the affected sitios under a state of calamity soon so that a re-blocking plan can be implemented and funds for the financial assistance to the families will be released.
A day after the fire, the Division for the Welfare of the Urban Poor (DWUP) started inspecting the area hit by the fire.
DWUP operations chief Genevieve Alcoseba said she may recommend opening more pathways in the area since access to the interior portion is limited.
“We observed that pathways are really narrow and the houses are really close to each other,” she said.
Alcoseba said that after the inspection, they will conduct a boundary survey and go over the reblocking plan implemented in 2013 after a fire hit Sitio Bato.
SFO3 Emiliano Daño, Cebu City Bureau of Fire Protection investigator-on-duty, said that based on their initial investigation, the fire started on the second floor of the house owned by a certain Ronron Sarmiento.
Jacky Espinosa, Sarmiento's live-in partner, earlier denied the allegation and said that when she arrived, only the terrace of their house was on fire while the house of a certain Myrna Cerelles was already engulfed in flames.
Cerelles refuted Espinosa's account.
“Ako may last nigawas, pag tan-aw nako ang bata (four-year-old child of Ronron Espinosa) naghilak na. Wala na, nagtu-to na ang kayo. Wa'y laing tawo g'yod. Pagbira nako sa bata, nidagan ko padung sa ilang (Ronron Sarmiento's) tindahan nya akong giingnan 'Ron sunog sa inyo Ron.' Diri g'yod nagsugod. Sa akong side ba, ang tinood sa ilaha man g'yod. Ka-komprontahon ko sa tawo nga nag-ingon nga sa amo nagsugod ba. Pero ayaw na lang, at least na save nako iyang anak,” she added.
Aside from food packs and clothing, Ermita fire victims need potable water supply, blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits and solar lamps.
The family of Melit Abadiano, 60, is just one of the more than 600 families taking shelter at the Ermita Sports Complex and Unit 2 of Carbon Public Market.
According to her, most of the evacuees need a mattress they can sleep on at the evacuation center.
“We need personal hygiene items. We don’t have anything to use at all. We weren’t able to bring anything because we were not at home when they fire happened,” she said in Cebuano.
Abadiano regrets not being home as she was not able to save anything from their newly built house. When the fire struck, she was busy assisting Ermita residents at the barangay hall, where she works as a barangay health worker.
“I haven’t seen what remains of our house. I’m still exhausted. It hasn’t been a month since the house was finished, and it’s already gone. It’s depressing,” she added.
Around 273 houses were destroyed after a fire that lasted almost three hours hit Sitios Bato, Pig Vendor and Castilaan in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
The affected residents received packed meals from the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS), which Francsico Escobal, 23, is thankful for.
He said they are also in need of solar lamps.
“Kinahanglan gyud namo ang tubig, banig, moskitero ug solar lamp. Walay suga diri, namalit ra mi ug kandila pag gabii,” he said.
Elagita Sumalinog, 60, felt sorry for her son who lost his thesis copy and other school documents to the fire a month before graduation.
“Wala gyud mi nahipos kay ang amo rang gidali ang among pag-umangkon nga gi-cancer kay hinay na man siya mulakaw. Ang akong anak graduating sa college karong March, iyang thesis ug tanan niyang uniform wala g'yod,” she narrated.
Michaela (real name with held) said they have no choice but to rebuild their house on the fire-hit area. They hope to set up a tent there soon so they can leave the relocation site. (RVC, Wenilyn Sabalo, USJ-R Intern)