Another Fire razes downtown Dumaguete

Fire of still undetermined origin razed the the northern part of downtown Dumaguete at the corner of Silliman Avenue and Perdices Street, burning down some of the old commercial stores of the city.
The fire gutted down Rosante restaurant along Perdices Avenue (formerly Alfonso XIII), a popular hangout among Silliman students for many years.
Also razed were Marjories' boutique and another snack bar beside it which was supposed to have opened in two weeks.,
Also burned down was the row of apartments along Silliman Avenue where a local franchised spa, Body and Sole was also operating, beside Jo's Chicken Inato.
This location had been a landmark commercial center of the city, way back in the 1970's.
When I was a kid, my family lived on the third door of the Flores apartment.
We resided there for about six years. It is gone now.
Marjories' Boutique used to be Marjories' Drug store, a pharmacy, in the 1970s.
Rosante used to be Sahara snack bar in the 1970s.
During those days, Cang's General Supply was located right accross Marjories.
I am very familiar with this area. I used to sell The Negros Chronicle newspaper there on these streets---P.15 centavors per copy.
The site of the present Scooby's (corner Silliman Ave. and Perdices St. west part) used to be Foodarama (if you recall) owned by retired Judge Terry Chiu, whose Texas-based son Ricky is now my law partner in our Dumaguete office.
Anyway, I was one of the first who was informed of the latest of a series of fires to have hit the city.
I received a text message less than thirty minutes after the fire started, at around 4:30 a.m. Monday January 15, 2007.
The reason why I received such an early call was because it was my sister who sent the text message.
Marjories' Boutique was run by my sister in law, Marjorie Yee Dejaresco.
The snack bar that was yet to open in two weeks was supposed to be run by Marjorie and her husband Em-em, who is my younger brother.
Now everything is gone.
The fire reportedly started at around 4 a.m. Monday, and was contained before 8 a.m.
It could be that Dumaguete is so unlucky with fires because there's no stopping these fires razing parts of commercial downtown Dumaguete.
Or it is possible that someone or some people are playing with fire and rake in profits out of it.
Let us later analyze the string of fires that have hit downtown Dumaguete lately.
The area where the defunct Hassaram's Department Store used to operate had been razed to the ground. It is now replaced by a newly refurbished store.
Uymatiao building, where a mall now has been errected, Mart One, had also been burned.
The city prosecutor's office, the very next building eastward adjacent to the fire department was also totally burned.
That fire in the city prosecutor's office is really one for the books.
It happened right at the very noses of our fire department, yet it was razed to the ground as the response was too late.
There is more to that latest Monday fire.
I'll blog on it later.