Hair on fire scares, kills octogenarian

CEBU, Philippines - An 80-year-old widow died after jumping out of the window of her burning house in Barangay Bojo, Aloguinsan town Wednesday.

Probably in panic upon seeing her hair caught fire, Leoncia Dimol jumped off the window. She died later on before she could even reach the hospital.

Aloguinsan Fire Officer 1 Leroy Quisido said that the victim was doing her routine work of cooking food around 5 p.m. when an hour later, a fire broke out in her house.

Quisido said Dimol, who lives all by herself, allegedly started cooking inside her house, particularly in what was supposed to be her living room, when the dirty kitchen she used to have outside of the house could not be of use anymore.

When the fire started and caught her hair, the victim was heard shouting for help and later on seen jumping off the window estimated to be six meters high from the ground.

Armando Caballero, the husband of a relative of Dimol who lives approximately 100 meters away from her house, told fire investigators that they tried rescuing the victim but they could not even get near her house finding the blaze too hot to handle.

When the victim jumped out of the window, they boarded her on a vehicle and tried to rush her to the Don Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center but she died when they were still in Talisay City. They then headed back to Aloguinsan.

The firemen received the call for assistance at 6:30 p.m. and pegged the damage at P50,000. The house was already totally burned when they arrived there.

They have discounted the possibility that the fire was caused by electrical misuse because the house had no electric power supply and so do her neighbors who live several meters away from the said house.

Quisido said they had a hard time in reaching the fire scene because it was located about seven kilometers from the highway and that one has to walk downhill before reaching the house.

The elderly woman reportedly owned quite a large house for her who’s living on her own. Her children are said to have relocated here in Cebu City, according to Quisido. — Niña G. Sumacot/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)