ILOILO City – Some P4 million worth of properties went up in smoke at a residential area in Sitio Langka, Barangay Benedicto, Jaro district that fire struck on Saturday, according to the Iloilo City Fire Station.
City Fire Marshal Bartolome Beliran considered the Jaro fire the biggest since the blaze that hit barangays Bolilao and Bakhaw in Mandurriao district on Aug. 31.
A total of 105 families and 72 houses were affected by the Jaro fire, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said in a report, citing validated figures from the City Social Welfare and Development Office as of 10 a.m. yesterday.
Sixty-eight houses were destroyed while four houses were damaged.
Fifty-six affected families were housed at the Jaro covered gym, which was turned into an evacuation center. They comprised 224 individuals, mostly children aged 6 to 14 years old (38), the same report stated.
There were no casualties but the Iloilo City Fire Station recorded four injuries – civilians Jordan Calvo, 23, and Fred Bogite, 58, and fire officers Guillermo Cerrada III and Val Cesar Divinagracia. They had wounds and burns.
The Mandurriao fire around two months ago razed 80 houses and left P10 million worth of property damage.
Beliran told Panay News yesterday their initial investigation showed the cause of the Jaro blaze was “electrical in nature.”
The fire started from the “upper part of the wall [on the] second floor of [a] two-storey house owned by Reynaldo Ledesma,” Iloilo City Fire Station records showed.
Ledesma himself acknowledged this when interviewed by fire investigators, Beliran said.
“He (Ledesma) saw the fire on the second floor of their house, from the bedroom of his older sibling,” said Beliran.
The city fire marshal said they were looking into “overloading” due to the use of jumpers/wiretapping as possible cause of the fire but were not discounting the possibility of arson.
“When probing fires, we first look into possible arson, but so far we have not seen any evidence of intentional torching,” said Beliran.
Fire investigation takes time – up to 45 days, if standard operating procedures were faithfully followed – he said.
“Spot report and initial findings on the first 24 hours, progress report from second day to 15th day, and then up to 45 days,” Beliran said. “But on our part we try to expedite the process.”
Final investigation results may be made available by Tuesday or Wednesday, “as soon as we could come up with a definite conclusion based on all the evidence we have gathered,” he said.
The Iloilo City Fire Station estimated the razed area to be between 700 and 900 square meters.
Giving a more visual estimation, Beliran said the affected area could fit inside but barely fill the Jaro public plaza.
The Iloilo City Fire Station raised a fire alarm at 3:54 p.m. A firefighting volunteer walked up to the Jaro Fire Substation – just a block away from the burning cluster of houses – and sought help, Beliran said.
Firefighters struggled during response. They “confined” the blaze at 4:35 p.m. and declared “fire out” at 7:33 p.m. – almost three hours after the fire alarm.
Vehicular traffic was one of the main obstacles the firefighters faced, Beliran told Panay News.
“The fire was already huge when fire trucks reached the site,” he said. “Fire trucks had to counterflow on the one-way street but some jeepneys do not give way to them. Firemen had to find strategic positions to avoid getting burned themselves.”
A video uploaded on the Facebook page of the Barrio Obrero Fire Substation showed several private and public utility vehicles failing to give way to an incoming fire truck responding to the Jaro fire. It was shot from the truck’s passenger seat.
“Arrogant drivers could delay us for a minute, and every minute counts,” read the description that accompanied the video. “So pls give way to our emergency vehicles [sic].”
Beliran also suspected there was delay in reporting the fire. “The locals may have attempted to put out the fire by themselves and panicked when they failed and the blaze got bigger,” the city fire marshal said.
Penetrating the area where the blaze was most intense was a challenge, too, because of the narrow pathway where residents also passed to escape, said Beliran.
The wind direction, on the other hand, allowed the fire to spread toward the street, he said.
The house of Reynaldo Ledesma, where the blaze allegedly started, was around 15 to 20 meters from the road, said Beliran.
Meanwhile Beliran laughed off claims that the Jaro Fire Substation responded to the blaze without sufficient water. That’s a “recycled issue,” he said.
“Having a fire truck without water is a mortal sin among us firefighters. We could get dismissed. So that’s impossible,” he said.
A total of 14 fire trucks, including those from all units of the Iloilo City Fire Station and the fire stations from the nearby municipalities of Pavia and Oton, responded to the Saturday afternoon blaze, said Beliran.
“Perhaps what they saw was a fire truck already running out of water and needed a refill,” said Beliran. “A fire truck tank contains 1,000 gallons – around 4,000 liters – of water and these could get used up in three to five minutes of firefighting.”
Refilling and refueling all fire trucks are basic steps every after response, he stressed. “It’s not true [that we didn’t have water]. That’s impossible. Very impossible.”/PN
