A FIRE hit a residential area in Sitio Upper Gun Club, Barangay Guadalupe yesterday morning.
The fire left 12 families, or 53 individuals, homeless.
“Before the fire started, there was a radio that was left turned on and then they heard its static. In just seconds, they saw flames swallowing their houses,” SFO4 Pier Angelo Abellana of the Bureau of Fire Protection told Sun.Star Cebu.
The fire station received the alarm at 10:20 a.m and was declared under control 10 minutes after.
Because the houses were made of light materials, the fire spread quickly and managed to raze the two houses to the ground.
The two houses have multiple rooms that were shared by 12 families.
Firefighters also had difficulty because of the terrain, and they had to connect 15 hoses to reach the burning houses.
Fire investigators estimated the damage at P30,000.
According to Abellana, the fire started at the room of Irma Amante and was caused by an appliance that overheated.
This was confirmed by Roxanne Arquilos, 20, whose room was beside Amante’s.
“Nikalit og karat ang radyo niya nikatag na diretso ang kayo (The radio let out a static sound and the fire immediately spread),” she said.
Amante’s one-month-old grandchild was rescued by another relative who forced open the door as the fire raged.
“I was trapped. Good thing that one of her aunts forced open the door and rescued her from the fire,” Amante said in an interview.
She denied the allegation that the fire started in her room and said that she doesn’t own a radio.
The newborn did not sustain any injuries while one of their neighbors fainted due to hypertension when she hurriedly hauled her things to safety.
The affected families appealed to the public for donations like construction materials, extra clothes and food.
Rosalinda Lidama, Barangay Guadalupe’s focal person, said the fire victims were temporarily evacuated to the basketball gym located near the fire scene.