Fire gutted a house on the eve of the fiesta of this town Thursday night, when the local electric supply also frequently blinked like off-season Christmas series lights.

Around 10:00 p.m., fire struck the house of Ambrocia Alarde, 76 years old, on Vicentillo Street in Ilaya District of the poblacion.

The incident sent fiesta revelers inside many houses out into the streets.

The burned nipa-and-wood house, about 5 meters by 7 meters, was built on a lot about 10 meters away from neighboring large houses.

At the time, Alarde’s daughter, Teresa, 52 years old, was asleep inside the house. She was roused from sleep by the heat and suffered from burns on the right arm. She was rushed to the Biliran Provincial Hospital for treatment.

Concerned neighbors rushed to the house to find the semi-invalid Ambrocia when the fire broke out. It turned out she was reveling with neighbors in a nearby house.

She said that all the electric lights were off when she left the house a few minutes before the fire. But she left a kerosene lamp for lighting.

She believes a gust of wind probably knocked off the lamp and caused the fire.

Firemen arrived at the scene some 15 minutes after the fire started. Some of them looked like they were soused with alcoholic drinks.

They failed to respond to urgent telephone calls to the fire station. Their telephone line, along with that of the local police station, has been cut off for months now.

The fire was put out by 10:30 p.m.

A fire also struck the same district about two years ago. It also gutted a house and was put out by local residents aided by the inclement weather. The local fire truck was then out of order.

The fiesta eve fire marked another sad episode for the Alarde family. On fiesta eve last year Ambrocia’s son, Domingo, was killed during a stabbing incident.

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