BY RHENJIE MARIE CALANTAS and GLENDA TAYONA
ILOILO City – Two successive fire incidents destroyed 39 houses in Lapuz district.
On Saturday, March 18, nine houses were totally gutted and five were partially damaged in Barangay Rizal.
According to Barangay Captain Wilson Allona, the fire originated from the boarding house owned by Sapiro Durban and it quickly spread to neighboring houses.
The displaced residents are temporarily staying at the barangay gymnasium.
A day prior, March 17, 25 houses were razed in Barangay Jalandoni Estate, including that of Barangay Captain Efren Gimeo, data from the City Social Welfare and Development Office.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the fire quickly spread since the houses were mostly made of light materials.
The fire victims took shelter at the Jalandoni Memorial Elementary School.
“Sa pila ko ka tuig nga nagpungko di bilang barangay kapitan kaduha na ‘ni nga sunog nga natabu diri. Pero amo ‘ni, so far, ang worse kay, ti, kapitan kag tatlo ka mga kagawad gid ang apektado,” said Gimeo.
The BFP said both fire incidents were caused by faulty electrical wiring.
Treñas seeks solutions
Mayor Jerry P. Treñas is tapping the help of some stakeholders to find solutions to fire occurrences in the city that were mostly caused by illegal electrical connections especially in areas that are densely populated by informal settlers .
The city mayor particularly sought the help of the city’s sole power distributor, MORE Electric and Power Corporation, and the intervention of the City Engineer’s Office and Iloilo City Urban Poor Affairs Office.
Treñas wanted them to look for solutions for areas where there are informal settlers so that proper electric connections can be given to those less privileged constituents in the meantime.
He stressed a legal electric connection is the only way to avoid frequent occurrences of fire.
“Illegal electrical connections are mostly the cause of fires in areas of informal settlers. We will see how these can be avoided once and for all,” the city mayor said./PN
