Fire guts 2 houses, 1 taxi

CEBU, Philippines - A fire gutted two houses in Espina Village, B. Rodriguez Street Barangay Sambag II while minutes later, a taxi was engulfed in flames while traversing along Leon Kilat Street corner N. Bacalso Avenue, Cebu City, yesterday afternoon.

Senior Fire Officer 4 Jovito Abelgas said that they received a call at 2:32 p.m. yesterday from a certain Rebecca Gatulong regarding a fire at Espina Village.

The fire fighters immediately responded to the alarm which was declared under control at 3:52 p.m.

According to the fire department, the two houses, which were partially damaged, belonged to Gina Yap and Joy Bernaldez.

Initial investigation revealed that the cause of the fire might be electrical in nature but they are still ve-rifying the report.

Abelgas said that the fire reportedly originated from Yap’s storage room.

Before the fire broke out, sparks were seen at the storage room, said Abelgas who added that it probably was the cause of the fire.

The fire department estimates the damage at around P100,000. No one was reported injured during the fire.  

Meanwhile, a taxi was engulfed in flames yesterday afternoon while it was travelling along Leon Kilat Street corner N. Bacalso Avenue.

The alarm was received by the fire department at 2:43 p.m while most of the fire trucks were responding to the fire alarm in Espina Village.

The burned taxi was a Toyota Altis with plate number GXJ 846 owned by Peter Corominas and was dri-ven by Jeniper Superales.

The fire department said that a short circuit started the fire.

Fortunately, the driver was able to get out and no one was hurt in the incident.  (FREEMAN)