TWO firemen and a civilian were injured in a fire that razed seven houses in Barangay 13, Bacolod City, on Saturday morning, December 8.
Wounded were Mark Ortega, Fire Officers 1 Nathaniel Colacion, and Gary Peruelo. No casualties were reported.
Fire Officer 2 Mark Alonzo of the Bureau of Fire Protection said Colacion was hit by a hose nozzle while Peruelo fell from a rooftop when they responded to the fire call at 11:40 a.m.
Chief Inspector Publio Doctora Ploteña, city fire marshal, said Ortega sustained a minor laceration on his left lower leg and right finger after he ran from the burning houses.
Ploteña said the fire reportedly started in between the roofs of Tessie Magbanua and Hernie Pineda then it spread to other houses made of mixed-concrete and light materials.
Four houses were destroyed while three others were damaged.
Ploteña said arson investigators discovered electric arcs at Magbanua’s house which probably caused an electrical short circuit.
If there are electric arcs, wires cannot resist heat which caused it to break, leading to a fire, he said.
Ploteña said he could not tell if the houses of Magbanua and Pineda were empty when the fire broke out.
The fire was put out at 12:39 p.m.
He said there were affected boarders at Magbanua’s house.
The fire victims were temporarily sheltered in the barangay hall.
Ploteña said the fire left an estimated P150,000 worth of damage to properties.
Meanwhile, Ploteña said a fire truck of one of the BFP’s substations which was supposed to augment them at Barangay 13 was involved in a multiple road crash at Burgos-Lacson Streets.
The fire truck allegedly sideswiped a private vehicle on their way to Barangay 13.
Due to the impact, a sports utility vehicle, and two trucks hit a pick-up truck they were tailing. (BYM)