Kalibo Fire Leaves 2,000 People Homeless

[Guest OceanBreeze]

A two-hour fire destroyed at least 400 houses and left more than 2,000 persons homeless in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan Saturday afternoon.Firetrucks from the neighboring towns of Kalibo and the provinces of Capiz and Antique had to assist in putting out the fire.The fire, considered the biggest in the province since 1995, mostly affectedsquatters who had not recovered from the massive devastation of flooding andmudflow triggered by typhoon Frank in 2008.More details: Inquirer

[Guardian]

I read about fires like this one all the time where it wipes out a whole neighborhood. Why do you think that happens so often?

[Guest OceanBreeze]

I read about fires like this one all the time where it wipes out a whole neighborhood. Why do you think that happens so often?

Open fire to cook, carelessness, overpopulated squatter areas with houses living next door to another, big families with many unattended kids, poor building material, no fire protection like extinguishers ....Anyway .. the last sentence in the inquirer article sounds also interesting:

Residents who have been staying in the area for decades have opposed moves by landowners to have them evicted from their houses, said Calaor.

[johnb]

There was a fire in downtown Cebu last Wednesday or Thursday I believe, it started in a Chinese plastics warehouse, and was rumered to have been caused by those cheap and nasty Christmas lights, anyway the fire very nearly spread to my Wife's families place, they have a small semi perminent house built from plywood a real easy target for fire and with neighbors only a couple of meters from each other and know internal roads for fire engine access, it would have been a disaster if the flames had spread.they were told to evacuate but of course were scared of having there house looted, I told them to pack all important documents and small keepsakes and have them ready, move the kids out to our place and mama and her son could stay at the house to see how things developed, luckily the fire burnt itself down to a smoldering plastic heap and mama'a house was saved.When my wife was a kid they lost there house to a fire, again it was one of these semi-permanent structures, and the fire started in a neighbours property, they lost all sorts of important paperwork, birth certificates, high school diplomas etc but what she remembers most and only told me last thursday, was that if they had money then they wouldn't have lost there home, the firecrews [ I use the term loosely] were taking bribes, as the fire spread and several homes were at risk those with money paid the firecrews to spray there houses, Jenny's family lost there house because they were poorer than the neighbours.........and it was one of the neighbours who caused the fire.Jenny's Dad died many years ago, but I wonder what memories were floating around in Mama's head as she watched the flames, at least this time if the worst came to the worst ,she would have us to home them. John