Mandaue fire gobbles up 30 houses

CEBU, Philippines - Thirty houses which are made of light materials were totally burned in Sitio Tondo in Barangay Tingub, Mandaue City at around 1:15 a.m. yesterday.

The origin of fire was at an abandoned house owned by a certain Noel Hopia.

The fire quickly spread to neighboring houses which are closed to each other.

"Grabe ka paspas ang kayo, igo na lang ming nakamata ug nakaambak sa dihang daghan na ang nanyagit," a resident said.

Senior Fire Officer 1 Julius Lua said the narrow road leading to the area was one of the challenges they encountered in responding to the fire.

The fire was immediately raised to Task Force Alpha. It took responders 14 minutes to control the fire that was declared "fire-out" in a span of one hour and 14 minutes.

Only a few of the affected residents were able to save their belongings as most were asleep when the fire broke out yesterday dawn  and were in a hurry to save the lives of their children.

The fire department has yet to determine the cause of fire .

Tingub Barangay Captain Mario Pareja said the affected residents were only renting the private lot owned by former barangay captain Mario Bihag.

Pareja said he will be talking to the former barangay captain to allow the affected residents to go back to the said place amid talks that the said lot was already sold to a private company.

At present, the affected residents are seeking temporary shelter at the Tingub National High School wherein they will be receiving packed cooked food for three days from the City Social Welfare Service.

Damaged was pegged at P300,000. — (FREEMAN)