SunStar Pampanga, Dec. 24, 2005
MABALACAT -- A fire gutted a two-storey house in Barangay San Francisco in the town on Friday leaving at least three families homeless.
Jose "Joey" Ventanilla of Velasquez Street in Sitio Aguso and his two other siblings lived in the same house razed by the blaze that started at 9 a.m. Friday.
There was no reported casualty during the fire that only reached its first alarm.
Witnesses said Ventanilla's wife managed to rescue her twin children and they escaped through one of the windows in the house.
Two other houses beside Ventanilla's residence were damaged, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said. But the timely arrival of firefighters from the Mabalacat Fire Office, Clark Development Corporation (CDC), and Dee Hwa Liong Volunteer Fire Brigade prevented the fire from spreading to other shanties.
Sitio Aguso is thickly populated and has a lot of adjoining houses.
The Mabalacat Fire Department stated that it is still investigating the cause of the fire that destroyed properties amounting to some P200,000.
Fire investigators said a lamp that was left unattended might have caused the conflagration. The firefighters contained the fire at 9:50 a.m.
Ventanilla and his family are seeking the support of Mayor Marino "Boking" Morales.
