FIRE FATALITY. Print journalist Allen Abastillas (in photo) was one of two people who died in a fire in Barangay Tetuan, Zamboanga City, early Tuesday morning (Sept. 10, 2024). Eight others were injured in the four-hour blaze. (Photo from Abastillas’ Facebook Page)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Two people, including a local newspaper reporter, died and eight others were injured in a fire that destroyed nine houses in Zamboanga City, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said Tuesday.
City fire marshal Supt. Christopher Morales said the fire, whose cause remains unknown, broke out around 2 a.m. Tuesday on Don Alfaro Road in Barangay Tetuan.
The victims were identified as Allen Abastillas, a journalist for a local daily, and Adolfo Vicente Jr., an employee of the city's Office of Environment and Natural Resources.
Emerson Salvador Santiago, a colleague of Abastillas and the owner of the boarding house where Abastillas lived, said the fire spread rapidly because the nine houses destroyed were made of light materials. One of the houses was owned by a local TV reporter.
Santiago said Abastillas had already escaped the burning building but went back inside to retrieve his personal belongings, including important documents, and was unable to make it out again.
“He was already outside. When he remembered his bag containing important documents and the title to his property in General Santos City, he rushed back and never came out,” Santiago said.
Abastillas, who had lived in Santiago’s boarding house for 10 years, began his career as a lighting technician in the mid-1980s and later worked as a cameraman for local and national TV networks. A working student, he earned degrees in Customs Administration and Law before transitioning into journalism, where he wrote for a local newspaper and maintained a news and social column titled Snapshot.
Santiago said Vicente, his brother-in-law, saw Abastillas went back inside the burning building and went in after him to retrieve his own belongings but also failed to escape.
The fire, which reached the third alarm, was controlled at 3:08 a.m. and declared fire out around 6:23 a.m.
Authorities estimated the damage to property at PHP9.6 million. (PNA)
