(PHOTO COURTESY)
ORMOC CITY- A machine shop and a nearby house were turned to ashes when a fire of still unknown origin gutted the area about 4:05 AM on Sept. 9) at Zone 15, Baybay City.
Acting City Fire Marshal, S/Insp Fernando Mandia, identified the house owners as Victoriano Yu, 71, the machine shop owner, and Rodrigo Albarico Fernandez, 67, married, both residents of Zone-15 in the said city.
It was learned that the fire started at the machine shop.
Initial investigation conducted by SFO1 Al Sta. Iglesia, duty fire investigator, disclosed that the fire started while Yu was sleeping inside his nipa hut which is located nearby to his machine shop.
Yu told fire investigators that he heard a burst sound prompting him to get up from his bed and look outside where he noticed a fire that emanated from his machine shop.
He immediately took a fire extinguisher with the intention of putting off the fire but to no avail.
Sta. Iglesia said that because there are flammable materials inside the machine shop, the fire immediately engulfed the entire machine shop.
Unfortunately, it reached the adjacent house owned by Fernandez, which is made of light materials and was partially gutted with an estimated worth of damages for the adjacent house P200,000.
The damage to the machine shop owned by Yu is estimated to be worth P2 million.
The fire was under control at around 4:32 am and was totally out at around 4:50 am.
No casualty was reported as the fire office has yet to determine the origin of the fire incident.
(ROBERT DEJON)
