Cebu City Fire Leaves 85 Families Homeless

An hour-long fire hit a thickly-populated area in Barangay Day-as, Cebu City Saturday evening and razed 20 houses, leaving at least 80 families homeless, fire officials said.

No one was reported injured in the fire, but damage was pegged at PHP500,000.

SFO2 Leo Magallon of the Cebu City Fire Department said the fire was tapped at 6:04 p.m. and was placed under control at past 7 p.m.

Clearing operations lasted for another hour, he said.

Magallon said initial investigation showed the fire started on the ground floor of the three-storey house of Anthony Conejos.

But he said they will still conduct further investigation to confirm what caused it.

Firefighters raised the alarm to Task Force Alpha when the flames spread quickly to nearby old houses, mostly made of light materials.

Fire engines from the barangays as well as from Mandaue and Consolacion town arrived to put out the flames.

The fire victims, who were given temporary shelter at the village’s covered basketball court, were given food by the city government. (PNA) SCS/EB/SSC