We got the report of a fire at Ultra Vision downtown Dumaguete. Several buildings are damaged but no lifes threatened. Here the report of the fire at Ultra Vision in Dumaguete.

Fire of still unknown origin gutted a multi-level commercial building in a busy section of Dumaguete on Tuesday, leaving millions of pesos worth of property damages and at least one person still reported missing. The Dumaguete fire station received a callout around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday that fire broke out at the Ultra Vision Cinema 1-2 building owned by a certain Eduardo Tan.

Initial investigation disclosed that smoke was seen coming out from the back portion of Cinema 1, one of two movie theatres in that building that were closed last November for renovation.

SFO2 Lyndon Patrocinio, chief fire investigator of the Dumaguete fire department, said fire probers still had to determine the cause of the blaze, which apparently could have been set off by an air tank or the motherboard of the building’s electrical wiring system.

Fire trucks and firemen from various towns and cities in Negros Oriental, to include Valencia, Sibulan, Amlan, Tanjay, Bais, and Silliman University, and the Filipino-Chinese fire brigade volunteers, plus at least two large water tankers from private companies assisted in putting out the blaze.

A boom truck from a local hotel was also deployed to lift firemen and their water hoses to reach the top level of the four-story building.

Traffic was closed to the public as a large crowd milled around the fire scene, while classes were suspended at the West City Elementary School, located just around the block from the burning building.

The building housed several concessionaires to include a cellphone shop, a dental clinic, a beauty salon, a travel agency, a massage parlor, a courier service and an engineering consultancy.

A firewall had prevented the flames, fanned by mild winds, to spread out to nearby houses and commercial establishments even as firemen sprayed water on these structures to protect them from being engulfed by the blaze.

A laborer, identified as a certain Ronald Toquero, could not be located as of press time.

His co-worker, Sonny Batus-batusan, told the security guard and caretaker of the building that he saw Toquero went inside Cinema 1 at the height of the fire.

The fire was placed under control around 3 p.m. and firefighters declared a fire out by 3:20 p.m.

However, firefighting teams returned to the scene after sundown following reports that the fourth floor of the building was ablaze again.

Fire investigators said they still have to determine the total cost of damage by the fire at Ultra Vison, the first big one to hit Dumaguete this New Year.

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