Lightning Burns P300,000.00 Worth Resthouse

June 15,2010
Lightning Burns P300, 00.00 Worth Resthouse
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.
Maasin City, Southern Leyte-A bursting-sounding lightning that roared the open sky and jolted sleeping people one gloomy early morning ,released a fireball that burnt a cogon-roofed resthouse as it passed by it before hitting a coconut tree nearby in brgy. Maria Clara here recently. The damage reached a total of P300, 000.00 including properties put inside the resthouse.
This was disclosed by a new Islam convert and Arson Investigator Achmad “Joel”Jarabe in an interview at the Maasin Fire Station.
Jarabe said that a certain Elementary school teacher by the name of Teresa Telen-Galos, 32 years old, married was the one who called up the fire station to inform about the incident.
He said that the three-bedroom resthouse, with dinning and kitchen burnt by the passing fireball, was owned by a certain Christopher Plateros whose permanent residence was in brgy. Tunga-Tunga.AT the time the house was burning, he said, they were not in the resthouse.They usually go there on weekends to relax and rest.
The Arson Investigator further informed that according to Maria Clara Chief Tanod Vicente Fernandez, he saw a fireball passing by atop the cogon-roofed resthouse then hit a coconut tree nearby.”Ang resthouse nasunog dayon paglabay sa bolang kalayo ibabaw sa atop ug mingkuyanap sa tibuok balay .Ang lubi nga naigo sa liti napikas sa tunga”, he said in Cebuano.(The resthouse after it caught fire was burned right away and it spreads quickly. And the coconut tree hit by the fireball was cut in half.)
Jarabe said that when they have arrived at the fire scene, the burning house could no longer be saved.”What we did instead was we aimed our hoses towards the nearby houses and sprayed it with voluminous water to prevent the fire from spreading”, he said.
Earlier in the morning prior to the incident, there were series of thunderstorms and lightnings that roared and jolted the heavens, somewhat creating a sense-surround effects before heavy rains have fallen.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)