Over 50 families were left homeless while at least one individual — identified as a person with disability (PWD) — was killed after a fire hit a residential area in Caloocan City early morning on Sunday, just days before the New Year.
According to the Caloocan Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) chief of operators Fire Senior Inspector Elyzer Ruben Leal, the fire started past 2 a.m. on Sunday in a residential area in Barangay 118.
Initial investigation shows that the fire started in the second story of a three-storey residential building in the area.
“Masikip po ‘yung daan. Dikit dikit po talaga ‘yung bahay,” Leal said in a report by Jhomer Apresto on GMA’s 24 Oras Weekend on Sunday, “Mga bahay po na nasunog more or less 20 residential houses.”
(The pathways are narrow. The houses are really close together… More or less 20 residential houses were razed.)
A 38-year-old man, said to be hard of hearing, was reported to have been killed after he returned to his home while the fire was ongoing.
“As per mga witnesses po, bumalik po siya sa loob kaya na-trap. Tapos mahina daw po ang pandinig niya,” Leal said.
(As per the witnesses, he returned inside which is why he was trapped. He was said to have been hard of hearing.) —Jon Viktor Cabuenas/RF, GMA Integrated News
