MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Over a thousand families in this city are now believed to be homeless after a fire hit sitio Aroma of barangay Subangdaku here last Monday afternoon destroying around 500 houses in the said area.

No casualty were reported so far while three people were injured in the blaze that almost razed the  entire sitio.

Meanwhile, as of press time Fire Officer III Cipriano Codilla of this city’s fire office bared that figures on the total number of victims are still being verified by authorities from the City Social Welfare Department, as a number of families are yet to register.

Earlier, Subangdaku barangay captain Walter Dy said that as of the latest census, there were 1,200 houses listed in the area with almost 2,000 families living in the lot owned by the Tanchan family.

Codilla added that the fire last Monday was the third incident in the area, “if Im not mistaken the place has been hit by fire last 1996 and 2003.”

The Mandaue City Fire Department received the call at 2:15 p.m. and the fire was put under control 20 minutes after.

Further, Codilla explained that despite the timely response of the fire department, the fire quickly spread throughout the whole sitio as most of the houses were made of light materials. The damaged as of today, is pegged at P2 million.

Moreover, two of those injured during the fire were identified as Fe Nabua and Ramon Formentera, who were hurt by broken glass while trying to salvage their belongings, while another person was also brought to the Mandaue City Hospital for minor burns.

Fire Marshall Rogelio Bongabong also said that only few were able to save their belongings as the incident happened during working hours where most of the renters are working in nearby establishments.

However, the cause of the fire is still under investigation though reports coming from some of the victims disclosed that the fire originated in the house of a certain Daisy Padronia, who left her cooking as she was selling water to her neighbors.