Ben Madilynn
TWO people, including a reporter, perished, while eight others were injured in a more than four-hour fire that razed nine houses in Zamboanga City, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said Tuesday, September 10, 2024.
Superintendent Christopher Morales, BFP’s Zamboanga City Fire District marshal, said the fire broke out around 2 a.m. Tuesday, along Don Alfaro Road in Tetuan village, Zamboanga City.
The fatalities were identified as Allen Abastillas, a reporter of a daily local newspaper, and Adolfo Vicente Jr., Office of the City Environment and Natural Resources personnel.
Emerson Salvador Santiago, a colleague and landlord of Abastillas, said the fire started at a house adjacent to his boarding house and rapidly spread as all of the nine destroyed houses were made of light materials.
One of the burnt houses is also owned by a reporter of a local television station, Emil Tuban.
Santiago said Abastillas failed to get out of burning house when the latter returned inside to retrieve his valuable personal belongings including important documents.
“He was already outside the burning house. When he remembered his bag containing important things and the title of his land in GenSan (General Santos), he rushed back and failed to get out,” Santiago said.
Abastillas had been staying in the place for the past 10 years, occupying one of the five rooms at the two–storey boarding house of Santiago.
Abastillas started his career as a lightman in the later 80s and then later on worked as a cameraman of a local giant network television station.
He was a working student and ventured into writing after he graduated Bachelor of Science in Customs Administration and Bachelor of Laws, at a local college and university, respectively.
Before his death, he wrote for a local newspaper and maintained a combination of news and social column entitled Snapshot.
Santiago said Vicente, his brother-in-law, upon seeing Allen (Abastillas) rushing back to the house, also went inside to retrieve his important belongings.
He said Vicente is staying at the house of his in-laws, which is next to Abastillas’ boarding house.
“He (Vicente) too failed to get out,” Santiago added.
Morales said the fire, which reached third alarm, was placed under control around 3:08 a.m. and was declared fire out around 6:23 a.m.
Morales said the estimated worth of damaged properties is P9.6 million.
He said they have yet to ascertain the cause of the fire incident. (SunStar Zamboanga)
