P200T fire razed a house in San Jose

TALIBON –FIRE prevention month celebration passed but not without rendering a family homeless. Fire razed to the ground last March 27 the residence of a retired public school teacher Orlando Mumar of Barangay San Jose, and along with it, all that the family has invested in years. Local fire department received the fire alarm at 3 pm , after a Bohol Electric Cooperative II personnel reported the conflagration. The fire however quickly gutted majority of the house and was already way beyond salvage when responding firemen led by Senior Fire Officer III Ricardo Garcia, the town fire marshall came to the rescue. Firemen still tried to control the fire for about 20 minutes. Fire investigator SFO1 Teodorico Auxtero, immediately conducted investigation as to cause of the fire.

A neighbor, Teresita Opora, who was also interrogated at the fire scene retold that her 3-year old grandson, Syrelle Opora told her that he saw the Mumar grandson playing with a match inside the master's bedroom of the house. Fire investigators followed the lead and got the facts from Opora while matching it with the Mumar kid's statements. Further investigation revealed that Benedict Buslon, 4-year old grandson of the victim was indeed playing with a match inside the master's bedroom. The child incidentally lit the stick and dropped it unto the pillows. Except for the victim's motorcycle, which escaped damage, the afternoon fire left nothing to the victims. Nobody was reported injured during the blaze.

Bureau of Fire Prevention spot reports estimated the fire damages at P200,000. Items reported damaged were one unit Sony DVD component, one sharp cassette tape recorder, two television sets (21” colored Daewoo and 14” Sony). A six cubic feet National refrigerator, three wooden carved cabinets, one carved divider, chinawares, two sewing machines (Singer and Rhine) two dining table sets, micro wave oven and assorted books for computer courses. ONAD MUNALEM