ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 5 June) – At least 200 families were displaced while two people, including a fireman, were injured in a four-hour fire that hit a slum community in this city late Wednesday.
Supt. Dominador Zabala Jr., Fire Marshal of the Zamboanga Central Fire Station, said in a phone interview Thursday that the fire damaged properties worth P3 million.
Zabala said the fire broke out around 7 p.m. and gutted down 100 houses in Barangay Campo Islam.
He said the fire started at the house of Hadja Salip and rapidly spread to the other houses made of light materials, which were built closely from one another.
Zabala said an unattended candle at the house of Salip caused the fire. She, too, was injured in the fire incident.
FO1 Edward Natividad suffered arm sprain after the latter fell from a roof while on firefighting maneuver, Zabala said.
“Fire out” was declared at 11 p.m., according to Zabala.
Ma. Socorro Roxas, head of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), said the four-hour fire displaced about 200 families.
Some of the displaced families are temporarily sheltered at the covered court of the nearby John Spirig Elementary School while some sought refuge in the homes of their relatives, she said.
Roxas said her office has provided cooked food to the displaced families.
The College of Social Work of the Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) has reportedly provided porridge to the fire victims. Campo Islam is an adopted barangay of WMSU’s College of Social Work.
“We will assess if we can give them food packs for them to cook,” Roxas added.
