THREE fires kept Cebu City firefighters busy yesterday afternoon.
A grass fire was reported at 1:12 p.m. near the San Pedro Calungsod Shrine in the South Road Properties (SRP).
Eight minutes later, another grass fire broke out in a subdivision in Barangay Guadalupe. Residents doused the fire before Cebu City firetrucks arrived.
FO3 Antonio Gonzales said the fire in the SRP was put out at 1:46 p.m.
No one was hurt in both fires., which struck less than halfway through Fire Prevention Month.
But at 2:24 p.m., another fire was reported in Barangay Sambag I.
Gonzales said the Sambag I fire began inside a room of a two-storey boarding house owned by Virginia Ngosiok.
Firefighters controlled the blaze after 11 minutes.
Misuse
Gonzales said that a room was destroyed, while three others were damaged.
He said the investigator pegged the damage at P200,000. Electrical misuse was eyed as cause of the incident.
Last Tuesday afternoon, a fire damaged a house in Unit 3, Barangay Kalunasan.
SFO1 Emilio Daño said the fire damaged property worth P50,000.
The blaze was reported at 3:31 p.m. and put out at 4:05 p.m.
Play
Daño said a child with special needs may have started the fire.
The nine-year-old son of Arabella Baguio was playing with a lighter.
“Wa siya kahibaw sa iya gibuhat. Nag-sige ra siya katawa (He did not know what he was doing. He just laughed),” Baguio told Sun.Star Cebu.
Aid
Baguio, 39, a widow with nine children, occupies the house owned by her father-in-law, Juan Reyes.
Kalunasan Barangay Captain Nunilon Monares Jr. said the barangay council will give relief goods to the Baguios who are temporarily living in the barangay hall.
The Cebu City Social Welfare and Development and Services (DSWDS) will also give assistance to the fire victims, said Huwey Abella of DSWDS.
Meanwhile, fire struck a sugarcane plantation in Barangay Luyang in the northern Cebu town of Carmen last Tuesday.
PO1 Cristito Aresco said that based on investigation conducted by the town's fire station the blaze started at 4:30 p.m.
Aresco said that the fire may have started with a cigarette butt thrown into the sugarcane field.
The flames were put out more than an hour later, he said.
Gonzales said that the two grass fires in Cebu City may have started in the same way. (With NSU AB Comm. Interns Rolando Balondo Jr. and Edwardo Almazan)