270 homeless after friday’s blaze Guadalupe under state of calamity

CEBU, Philippines - Following last Friday’s fire, Barangay Guadalupe was placed under state of calamity.

The Guadalupe barangay council led by barangay captain Michael Gacasan yesterday approved the resolution placing the barangay under a state of calamity so that the barangay can make use of its funds to help the affected families in sitio Sambag Dos.

Gacasan said they plan to hand over P3,000 to each family whose house was totally burned down while P1,000 to owners of houses that were slightly damaged.

The barangay has accounted 70 families comprising 270 individuals including renters and sharers. According to Gacasan, most of the victims were barangay workers, street cleaners, and garbage collectors.

Gacasan said 44 houses were damaged, a figure that nearly doubled the roughly 30 houses earlier reported to have been damaged.

The three people earlier reported injured in the fire have already been released from the hospital and are now in good condition, he said.

The affected families are staying under tents built near the fire scene. Gacasan said they provided the barangay complex for the victims, but the latter chose to stay in the tents.

The barangay captain further said that the victims can rebuild their houses in the same lot, which their respective ancestors or relatives own. The families will have to stay under tents while waiting for the reconstruction materials to arrive.

For now, Gacasan appealed to the public to help as the fire victims need clothes, mats, and blankets, among others.  There were no problems with electricity and water, though, he said.

Furthermore, the barangay captain said he will call the attention and talk to some of his constituents who lined up with the victims to also receive the P1,000 donation from Cong. Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña, former mayor of Cebu City, gave out P1,000 each to the affected families.

A brief commotion ensued when some of the residents, who were not actually affected by the fire, also lined up to get cash from the congressman, whose house was just a short distance from where the fire struck.

The fire, which struck the thickly-populated sitio at 2 pm last Friday, damaged some P200,000 worth of properties. Fire investigators are yet to determine what started the blaze. (FREEMAN)