A FOUR-DECADE old rice porridge eatery, or “lugawan,” located in Lapu-Lapu City Public Market was destroyed by fire on Sunday, May 4, 2025.
Lapu-Lapu City Fire District case investigator F03 Jopet Obiña, in an interview with SunStar Cebu on Sunday, said the damage caused by fire has reached P72,000.
The city fire district received the report at 4:59 a.m. and brought the blaze under control within five minutes. Firefighters extinguished the fire by 5:18 a.m.
Obiña said the blaze, which was raised to a first alarm, destroyed a single-story establishment made of lightweight and cement materials.
The establishment was owned by a 60-year-old woman who had been selling rice porridge at the local market for over four decades now.
The fire damaged a next-door store.
No casualties or injuries were reported.
Initial investigation suggests that the owner’s husband mentioned to Obiña that he saw sparks in the electrical lines leading to the main power source.
However, Obiña said the cause of the fire has not been determined yet, as authorities still need to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the situation.
“Based on the eyewitness, the electricity was flickering. I cannot immediately go inside because there were a lot of glass shards. It’s for my own safety,” said Obiña in Cebuano.
Obiña, along with two other fire officers, will meet with the owner on Monday, May 5.
A store owner, Jun Tenduyen, in a separate interview with SunStar Cebu, said he was opening his store around 4 a.m. when he saw the fire. His store was beside the rice porridge store.
Tenduyen said he immediately called his employee to head to the nearest fire station.
He lost an estimated P10,000 in products. The roof of his store was damaged.
Fires in Cebu City
In Cebu City, separate fire incidents broke out in Barangays Cogon Ramos and Guadalupe.
Firefighters responded to a fire alarm in a public market in Barangay Cogon Ramos on Saturday afternoon, May 3.
On the same day, a fire alarm was raised in Green Village subdivision located in Guadalupe. / DPC