Fire hits Malabon

Four houses were razed when a fire of still unknown origin broke out at a residential area in Malabon City yesterday.

Fire Office 3 Metodio Velasco of the Malabon City Fire Bureau said the blaze started at around 8:30 a.m. at the second floor of a house owned by Cresencia Santos on Pinagpala street, Purok Tiwala in Barangay Tonsuya.

The fire quickly engulfed Santos’ house that was made of light materials and spread to adjacent structures including a two-story, three-door apartment owned by a certain Melquiades Cayco.

"The upper portions of the structures were made of light materials, apart from that they were already old," Velasco said.

Two more houses, one owned by Lolito Fernando, were also destroyed before firefighters were able to put the blaze under control at around 9 a.m.

Malabon City fire marshal Senior Inspector Rodrigo Reyes said that at least eight families were affected, but no one was reported injured.

The fire was declared out at around 9:30 a.m.

Arson investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire.

In Manila, an hour-long fire gutted the office of a travel agency inside a building on Roxas Boulevard in Manila the other night.

The entire office of Manila International Travel at the ground floor of the Ermita Center Building at the corner of Roxas Boulevard and Sta. Monica street was gutted in the blaze, said probers.

Senior Fire Officer 1 Emmanuel Gaspar, of Manila Fire Department, said the fire started from the right portion of the office at exactly 9:08 p.m.

The blaze reached the fifth alarm and razed property worth P300,000 before it was put out at exactly 10 p.m., Gaspar said.

No one was reportedly hurt during the incident.

Gaspar said they have yet to determine the cause of fire. – Pete Laude, Edu Punay