Mother left them to look for father drinking tuba, 2 kids killed in fire

CEBU, Philippines - Before 23-year-old Jeovelyn Borgador left their house to look for her husband Friday night, she made it sure her two children were asleep. But leaving them alone proves to be fatal.

The two siblings were later killed when a fire hit the Borgador house in sitio Sinsin, Barangay Sam-ang, Toledo City, bringing to seven the number of people killed by fire in Cebu this year.

Firefighters pulled out the charred remains of Harvy, 5, and his two-year-old younger brother Alexander Jr. from the debris an hour after the fire.

SFO2 Constancio Alcover, Jr., fire investigator, said Insp. George Macapobre, the deputy chief of Toledo City Police Station, called up Toledo City Fire Station at 10:15 p.m. to inform them about the fire.

Alcover and several firemen immediately responded to the area and then saw the house, which was made of light materials, almost turned into ashes. He said the fire might have started around 9 p.m.

Firemen had to connect at least six hoses together to cover the 300 feet distance and reach the narrow and uphill area, which was about two and a half kilometers from the national highway.

But controlling the fire, Alcover said, was no longer mainly for the purpose of putting it out, acknowledging that the boys were already killed.

“We were just overhauling to retrieve the bodies,” he said.

Alcover said they then recovered the shriveled skeletons of the boys, less than a meter apart, near the house door.

“I believed they hugged each other then were separated when the bed was burned,” the fire official said.

Alcover said the boys were trapped inside the house because their mother, Jeovelyn, locked the door before leaving to look for her husband.

Few hours earlier, Alcover narrated, the family was just done with supper when Alexander, Sr., 26, the father, told Jeovelyn that he would go downhill to buy coconut wine (tuba).

“The wife did not permit him to go since was drunk the previous night,” Alcover said.

However, Alexander, Sr., who works with the LMS Aluminum in Toledo City proper, insisted and walked away.

Since he failed to return an hour later, Jeovelyn then decided to look for him.

She hanged an improvised kerosene lamp, which they used for lighting, and locked the door before leaving the kids who were already asleep.

“She made sure to hang the lamp high near the roof so the children could not reach. She said they have cat and there are rats which could have bumped the lamp,” Alcover said.

Jeovelyn found her husband drinking at a store and joined him.

While they were talking about their plans to expand their house, they saw people running with pales and shouting that a house uphill caught fire. Alarmed, the two immediately ran towards their house only to discover it engulfed in flames.

“The mother was crying hard while the husband walked away sobbing,” Alcover further narrated.

Alcover will meet with fire station chief, Chief Insp. Randy Mendaros, and personnel of the Department of Social Welfare and Development tomorrow to discuss if the parents may have committed any liability.

“The incident may have been a case of negligence on the part of the parents,” the fire official said.

The remains of the victims are now laid at the Sam-ang Chapel.

Last March 10, three people died in a fire that hit a house in Upper Lucimba, Barangay Pardo, Cebu City.

Two days later, a mother and her daughter were killed in a fire in Barangay Pajac, Lapu-Lapu City. — /LPM (FREEMAN)