Fire razes 71 houses

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — A total of 71 houses were burned in a fire that struck a residential area at Jaro district of Iloilo City.

The fire started at 9:39 a.m. Saturday (August 11) at the house of Sabelita Bunda in Barangay Taytay Zone II, where 41 houses were razed to the ground, with six others partially burned, and spread into the neighboring Barangay Calubihan, where 23 houses were gutted down and one more partially destroyed.

The Bureau of Fire Protection-Iloilo City pegged the damage to property at P2 million, while Senior Fire Officer 1 Rollin Hormina, fire and arson investigator, said no one was killed nor injured during the incident.

Hormina said a check revealed that the house’s knife switch — which controls the flow of electricity in a circuit — was turned off, meaning that “the entire electrical system in the house was not energized,” thus it was probable that the cause of the fire “was not electrical in nature.”

Fire probers are now looking into the possibility that there was negligence of the house occupants, due to neglected cooking, as they might have forgot to completely put out the burning charcoal used in cooking breakfast.

Hormina said that the fire was put under control by 11:03 a.m., or about two hours after, and the BFP declared a fire out at 1:46 p.m. or about four hours after. (FREEMAN)