QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista plans to relocate 1,000 informal settler-families after a huge fire hit Barangay Pinyahan Tuesday night.
He said the city government’s housing department and National Housing Authority are closely coordinating with one another to find a relocation site for the victims of fire that razed a slum community on Nia Road.
“Personally, I do not want them to go back to that place anymore because of a creek, first and foremost. It is no longer safe for them to stay in that area. Secondly, it is where the dengue-carrying mosquitoes hide and breed. There could be [a possibility of] tetanus infection in that area, and that children could be affected,” he said.
He maintained the 1,000 families displaced by the fire must not be allowed to return to the fire site.
“So for me, they should no longer go back and that they need to be relocated to a safe place, a place where children could have a better future and improved lives,” he said.
The fire that reached Task Force Delta started at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, and was put out at 7:47 p.m.
It left a 74-year-old woman dead and three persons injured.
“If the residents would insist to go back, the disaster risk reduction and management council has agreed to put up bigger roads in that place so that when there is an emergency case, it would be much easier for the firefighters to put off the fire,” Bautista said.
“In a few days, the fire victims will have to temporarily stay there since the NHA does not yet have an available relocation site for them.”
Bautista said the health department will prioritize attending to the needs of the vulnerable, those who have just given birth, the pregnant women and the senior citizens.
