10 houses lost to fire in Talisay

CEBU, Philippines - Ten houses and apartment went on fire yesterday morning at Kabayoan, barangay San Roque, Talisay City.

Of the 10, two were only damaged while the rest were gutted. Fortunately, no one was reported injured during the 20-minute fire.

SFO4 Felipe Abarquez estimated the damage to have reached P300,000. He said an electrical short circuit caused the blaze. The fire started at the house of Basilio Ornopia Jr., at the room of his mother Virginia who is partially paralyzed because of stroke.

Basilio and the rest of the family, including Virginia, were not home during the incident.

Abarquez said the fire easily spread quickly to the neighboring houses because the pathway leading to Ornopia’s is very narrow. This is the second fire that hit the city this year; the first was during the New Year’s Day celebration which gutted down two houses and partially damaged two others in sito Puwa, barangay San Isidro.

The city’s fire department pegged the damage in that fire to at least P75,000. The cause of that first fire was also electrical short circuit, one of the common causes of fire in Talisay.

Last year, at least four fire incidents recorded by the city’s fire department were caused by faulty electrical wirings so then fire marshall Felipe Canillas had called on the public to regularly monitor their electrical wirings.  (FREEMAN)