AN ELECTRICAL short circuit may have caused the fire that razed 273 houses in Barangay Ermita, Cebu City last Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 5.
SFO3 Emiliano Daño, Cebu City Bureau of Fire Protection investigator, said they'd already interviewed three witnesses.
“We're considering two angles for the cause. First was the child who was allegedly playing with matches. Then there's electrical short circuit. Someone had said that may have caused the blaze so we're not discounting that,” Daño said in Cebuano.
He said they were expecting two more witnesses to give their version on the incident on Friday, Feb. 8.
He, however, refused to give their names.
Around 2,800 individuals were displaced after the three-hour fire raced through densely-populated Sitios Bato, Pig Vendor, and Castilaan in Ermita last Tuesday.
Damaged was estimated at P3M.
Based on initial investigation, Daño said the fire allegedly started on the second floor of the house owned by a certain Ronron Sarmiento. His four year-old child (not five as earlier reported) was last seen playing matches.
Jacky Espinosa, Sarmiento’s live-in partner, denied this allegation. She said the house of Myrna Miro Cerellos was already engulfed in flames when she arrived in the scene.
Cerelles said when she stepped out of her house, the child was crying.
“The flames were already thick. There was no one else there so I grabbed the child and ran to their store, and I told him, ‘Ron, your house is on fire!’” she said in Cebuano.
Meanwhile, the City Council will hold a special session on Friday to declare fire-stricken areas in Barangays Ermita and Poblacion Pardo under a state of calamity.
Fire razed 85 houses in Sitio Tabucanal in Poblacion Pardo last Sunday morning, Feb. 3.
Acting Mayor Edgardo Labella said the council would convene with Acting Vice Mayor Dave Tumulak as presiding officer to approve the resolution.
Labella is acting mayor until Feb. 13, while Mayor Tomas Osmeña is out of the country.
Once the affected sitios are placed under a state of calamity, the City can use its calamity fund to provide financial aid to the survivors. (Wenilyn Sabalo, USJ-R Intern, RVC)