Modular tents that serve as temporary shelters for fire victims of Bugo and Barangay 24, June 2, 2025, Cagayan de Oro City. Photo supplied
TheMindanaoToday.com | P4-M properties lost in two separate fires
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines – Over P4-million worth of properties were burned and rendered 124 families homeless on Monday, June 2, after two fires broke out, one after the other within five hours, in urban and rural villages here.
The first occurred minutes past 10 am along Jose Agudo Street in Barangay 24, an urban village situated in between two popular malls, while the second was past noon at Zone 4 in Barangay Bugo, about 15 kilometers from the city proper.
Senior Inspector Kyle Bryan Lauzon, operations chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection’s City Fire District, said they called for assistance from other firefighting units because the blaze has spread out. It must be suppressed from all sides to prevent it from spreading, he said.
It took 24 manned firetrucks from various BFP fire stations nearby, including those from the Cagayan de Oro Electric Power and Light Company (Cepalco), CLIMBS Fire Volunteers, Filipino-Chinese Volunteer Firefighters, Gaisano Malls, and Limketkai and Sons to contain the fire.
Lauzon said the fire reached the fourth alarm at 10:28 am and declared under control at 11:28 am with an estimated damage to structures at P4 million.
He said two persons who were hurt, one with laceration on the head and the other second-degree burn.
Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department (CDRRMD) were there to assist the affected residents.
The fire left 112 families, composed of 486 individuals, nowhere to go. Of the 83 houses burned, 76 were in totally damaged. They are temporary housed at the Barangay 24 covered court in modular tents.
About an hour after firetrucks had left the fire scene at Barangay 24, the BFP Bugo Fire Station received a fire alarm from Zone 4 which is adjacent to Alae Bridge in Barangay Bugo.
Inspector Adrian Sabellano, Bugo FS chief, said the fire alarm must have been delayed because when they arrived at 12:55 pm three houses were already engulfed by flames.
He said it took them an hour to declare the fire under control, with four residential structures in skeletal shell and one slightly burnt.
Sabellano said they needed to connect their hoses (each measuring 50 feet) to reach the fire scene and be in proper distance in expelling water to targeted flames. The firetrucks were parked near the national highway because the area has no access road.
The fire, he said, reached second alarm with more firefighting units responding from the BFP FS of Puerto, Tablon and nearby Tagoloan Municipal Fire Station and three firetrucks from Gaisano Malls.
He placed the structural damage at P100 thousand because the residential structures gutted down were made out of light materials. Twelve families, including renters, composed of 49 individuals are in modular tents inside the covered court of Barangay Bugo.
Both Lauzon and Sabellano said they cannot disclose the cause of the fire due to ongoing investigations. [Uriel Quilinguing/MT]
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