DAGUPAN CITY -- A total of 13 families were displaced from their homes after a fire broke out in a residential area in barangay Pantal here Sunday afternoon.
Andrew Pasana, fire officer at the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in Dagupan City, said in an interview on Monday the displaced families are staying in the barangay’s evacuation center while some are accommodated by the barangay captain in her house.
"There were no casualties, no injured persons," he said.
Nine houses were burned down while two others were partially damaged by Sunday’s fire.
Pasana said the fire, which started in one of the houses and lasted for almost an hour, immediately spread to neighboring houses that are mostly made of light materials.
He added the BFP responding team had a hard time extinguishing the fire, which reached second alarm, as the houses were situated in the middle of a fish pond.
The BFP has been assisted by the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Panda Volunteer Fire Brigade.
Pasana said the fire might have been caused by an unattended stove of one of the families, based from the statement of witnesses.
“But this is still under investigation,” he added.
BFP Dagupan has already recorded 24 fire incidents in the city from January to April this year, said Pasana.
He said four of the incidents were residential fires, while the 20 others were grassfires.
“We appeal to the public to not overload their electrical wires and never leave your stove unattended and your appliances plugged as fire can easily start from these things considering the high temperature we are experiencing in the city,” he added. (PNA)
