CEBU CITY, Philippines – A fire that broke out early Saturday, May 7, killed 7 people in Barangay Pahina Central beside a former One Citilink terminal in Cebu City, SunStar reported.
Patino Wenian, a resident in the affected village, told Rappler the victims include 4 children, a mother, and a couple.
“Apat tanan ka bata, Ma’am, kay naa man bag-o panganak nga bata maoy iya nagakos maau. Trap man jud sila kay basement man ang ila giabangan,” Wenian said.
(Four children died including a baby whom the mother was hugging tightly. They were trapped in the basement room they were renting.)
The fatalities were identified as Cindy Galvan, 23; Rexin Alvarez, 4; Star Alvarez, 2; Cendrix Alvarez, 3 weeks old; Maximo Villafuerte, 55; Janna Villafuerte, 2; and a certain Rose.
Two firefighters identified as FO2 Elumir and FO1 Nino Lips Cabalse were injured while containing the blaze.
A total of 82 houses, 120 families and 452 individuals were reportedly affected by the fire, which started from a lamp that fell off. The total damage was estimated to be at P1 million.
The fire started at 4:44 am and was placed under control at around 6 am, Saturday.
In 2012, a fire hit the area which injured 4 people and destroyed 26 houses. Another fire burned 4 houses in the barangay in 2014.
“Naa na untay tarong mapuy-an ang mga tawo kay mao man ang usa sa hinungdan sa sunog ang mga illegal settlers, kay walay tarong source sa electricity ug sumpay-sumpay ang mga balay,” she said.
(I hope the residents will be given decent houses to live in because illegal settlers are one of the main causes of fire – their houses are huddled together without safe electrical connections.) – Rappler.com
Julie Bedas is a Rappler Cebu Mover. She is also a student of the Cebu City campus of the University of the Philippines
Parts of this article are used under Rappler’s content sharing agreement with the SunStar network in the coverage of the 2016 national and local elections.
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