First fatality of fire prevention month: Badian shanty fire claims life of girl

A two-year old girl ironically became the first fatality in this year's fire prevention month celebration as she was charred to death in a shanty at noontime yesterday in sitio Dapdap, barangay Bugas, Badian town.

The grandparents of the toddler, who owned the shanty, also sustained second-degree burns when they tried to save the child.

There are however conflicting versions of the story as told by the grandparents of the victim, Karen Rusiana. Both of them are 84 years old,

The grandfather, Sotero Rusiana said that the little girl accidentally kicked the table where a lighted oil lamp was put that resulted to the fire.

His wife, Agapita, on the other hand said that she noticed somebody throw a fire into the shanty while they were taking a nap with their granddaughter.

The girl together with her three siblings were left in the care of their grandparents as their mother left for Cebu City last Saturday to seek employment. She only learned about the fate of her child through radio reports and rushed back to Badian, 100 kilometers southwest of the city.

The siblings were at the house of a neighbor watching television when the fire happened and were all spared.

It only took 10 minutes for the fire to eat the whole shanty of the Rusiana's and the Badian Police, who have also been tasked to be the town's firefighters were not able to make it there on time since the shanty was located in an area that is hard to reach using four-wheeled vehicles.

The child's charred body was found after the clearing operation.

The grandparents were brought to the Badian District Hospital for treatment of their burns.

Damage has been pegged at P10 thousand.

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has announced that he office will be giving the family of the victim P5,000 as burial assistance and offered to help rebuild the house that was burned.

She also instructed the Department of Social Welfare and Development to look after the needs of the two other victims, who are in the hospital and coordinate with Badian Mayor Carmencita Lumain.

Meanwhile, in another fire incident, Bogo fire marshal SFO3 Reynaldo Enjambre said that damage wrought by the blaze the other night was pegged at P600,000. They, however, are yet to determine the cause although it has been reported to have started at Bodega Assorted Merchandise.

He identified the affected establishments as the Southern Telephone Company (Sotelco) Sotelco booth, Bodega Assorted Merchandise, Star Babes Videoke Bar, GI Jill Videoke Bar, Pompen Fernandez Dry goods and Ukay-ukay, Boy Dry Goods and Ukay-ukay, and RC Videoke Bar.

Enjambre, who was scheduled to meet Bogo Mayor Celestino 'Tining' Martinez III to explain their failure to respond quickly to the fire, was not able to do so as the mayor had a prior engagement in the city.

Enjambre, however, explained that the two firetrucks of their fire station are both in need of repair.

He said that he has already informed both the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) Cebu Province and the Office of the mayor about the decrepit state of their firetrucks last January 13.

The same was also included in the February monthly report to Provincial Fire Marshal Joseph Villaester, who said that they were only also waiting for the action of the BFP-7 for funding.

Enjambre said that he also made a follow-up with the office of Martinez last February 27, as he was worried as the fire prevention month was nearing.

The Bogo Mayor wanted to know from the firemen how come it was the firetruck from the nearbu town of Medellin that first responded to the fire alarm and not the one from their town.

The Bogo firemen actually made it to the scene using one of the two firetrucks but they had a hard time pumping water. Firefighters from other nearby towns also arrived to help. - Flor Z. Perolina and Cristina C. Birondo