Cats blamed for Sta. Cruz fire

Fighting cats allegedly caused a fire that destroyed five houses and damaged two others inside the Ocampo Compound in barangay Sta. Cruz yesterday morning.

The alarm was received by Bureau of Fire Protection around 10 a.m. and was immediately raised by Cebu City fire marshal Esmael Codilla to the third alarm.

The fire destroyed the house owned by Lucita Ocampo and her relatives Maricar Ocampo, Marilou Ocampo, Phoebe Lunde and Cerila Marqueta.

The damaged houses were owned by Valentine Pasia and Bobby Lozada.

No one was reported hurt or killed in the incident but damage was set at P.9 million.

Codilla said the fire was immediately controlled 15 minutes after firemen arrived at the scene. 

Fire investigator SFO2 Alicasim Espinola said they were able to prevent the fire from spreading to more houses by bringing the fire trucks close enough to the scene.

Combined tanods of barangays Sta. Cruz and Cogon-Ramos were also able to control the crowd from hampering the firefighting operations.

According to reports, the fire started at the kitchen of Lucita Ocampo while someone was cooking food. Cats allegedly started quarreling and knocked the single-burner stove off causing it to burn curtains and other light materials nearby.

When the nephew of Lucita, Bobit Ocampo, saw the fire he tried to put it out using a fire extinguisher but by then it was already too late.

Reports also said that the small LPG tank attached to the stove exploded sending more flames around the house.

Bobit said his aunt is in Negros and his son-in-law Ian, their children and their helper were the only ones home when it happened.

The helper allegedly fled during the fire and is now nowhere to be found.

Sta. Cruz barangay captain Jerome Lim who manned the crowd control reportedly almost got into a fistfight with two unidentified men who tried to enter the compound at the height of the fire.

Firefighters and barangay tanods managed to pacify them and told the two men to go home as they had no business at the fire scene.

The fire victims are now temporarily housed in the barangay’s sports complex and councilor Gerardo Carillo, the chairman of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, said they will send assistance to them.  — Edwin Ian Melecio/BRP