AN EARLY morning fire in Sambag 1 Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, left a 14-year-old girl dead and more than 300 individuals homeless.
Firefighters identified the fatality as Dawn Therese Awi, a Grade 9 student of Southwestern University-Phinma.
Awi was the only person in the house since her parents were out working.
“Posibleng wala naka dungog ang biktima. Naka headset man gyud ni siya. Mao to nga wala siguro nakadungog sa saba sa gawas nga dunay sunog,” said Senior Fire Officer 3 Oliver Tautho.
The Cebu City Fire Department received the alarm at 2:35 a.m. Saturday. The fire was declared under control two hours after at 4:59 a.m. and fire out at 8:50 a.m.
According to the initial investigation, the fire started in the residence of Diano Flores and Glenn Flores.
Tautho said the Flores brothers suspected that it could be the plugged aquarium or one of the light bulbs.
It started at the ground floor of the Flores residence. The brothers were on the second floor when the fire broke out.
Tautho said the fire burned 38 houses and left 98 families and 314 individuals homeless.
Tautho said the fire scene in the interior part of Sitio Amor posed a big challenge for the firefighters due to the narrow roads.
Nevj Villaruel, one of the fire victims, said their dog saved them from the fire, but they failed to save their dog after leaving the burning house.
Sambag 1 barangay chief Aileen Guardo said she and members of the barangay council were in Cordova for a budgeting session when the fire broke out.
Guardo said she will call an emergency meeting and possibly declare a state of calamity.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, who visited the fire scene Saturday morning, ordered the City Social Welfare Services to dispatch assistance to the affected families.
“In calamities like this, the City always gives assistance immediately, especially in terms of food for three days,” Labella said.
The City will also release financial assistance of P20,000 to affected families, Labella said.
Labella said the City will also help the family of the 14-year-old student.
A reblocking will take place to ensure that there will be enough access roads once reconstruction of houses starts.
Also affected by the fire were the audio and the props room, some rooms at the grandstand of the Cebu City Sports Center and some windows and air conditioning units of the senior high school department of the University of Cebu.
Candice Gotianuy, University of Cebu chancellor, said classes and scheduled final exams will still push through despite the fire incident.
“The fire will not stop the final exams from happening. We will still continue the classes on Monday while the cleanup works will go on and continue this weekend. By Monday, we should be okay,” Gotianuy said.
According to her, the damage was not much and they have already assigned new rooms in lieu of the affected rooms.
“The damage, thankfully, was not too much. It was mostly the windows and the air conditioning. We have met with the senior high school coordinators, and we assigned the rooms already,” she added.
The Cebu City Sports Center was also closed Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019.
The operations of its track oval will resume Sunday, Oct. 20, 2019, at 5 a.m. (BBT, JJL, WBS/MVG)