Girl charred, woman succumbs to heart attack: Parian blaze kills 2

CEBU, Philippines - Another fire has struck Metro Cebu, this time causing the death of two persons, including a six-year-old girl, and injuring five others in Parian, Cebu City yesterday dawn.

Maria Alexa Mutoc, a kindergarten student, was sleeping when the fire broke out at 4:30 a.m. and burned down a wooden building they were statying at the corner of Bonifacio and D. Jakosalem streets.

Her younger sister Princess Ren, three, suffered burns in different parts of her body but survived.

It took firemen nearly 20 minutes to control the blaze, which was raised to a third alarm.

Firefighters from the different fire stations in the city proceeded to the scene and helped put out the flames past 9 a.m.

Senior Fire Officer 1 Lowel Opolentisima of the Cebu City Fire Department said the blaze started in the upper floor of the two-storey building owned by one Jose Castro.

He said Alexa, Ren, and 50-year-old Bernardo Ortiz who watches over the two kids, were sleeping in a room beside the room where the fire originated.

"Pagkamata ni Ortiz, iyang gikuha ang manghod unya iyang gipukaw si Alexa, abi niya'g nisunod, wa man diay. Pag-utro niyang lingi, nagkayo na gyud og maayo (When Ortiz awakened, he took Ren and woke up Alexa.  He thought Alexa followed, but she did not. When he turned back, fire was already everywhere)," Opolentisima said.

The children's mother, Flordeliza Mutoc, was reportedly working in another barangay when the fire broke out.

The fire spread to a nearby three-storey building owned by the Gochan brothers and also destroyed it.

Residents, mostly renters and lodgers, roused from their sleep and ran outside for safety, with some of them suffering burns.

Ednalyn Calisin, 28; Mary Irene Simbajon, six, and her brother Matthew Justine Simbajon, wo, were admitted at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) while Ren and Ortiz were later discharged from the hospital after receiving treatment for their burns.

Fire Officer 3 Alexander Labuga, who suffered a cut on a left finger, was also treated at CCMC.

Labuga got cut in his haste to go down a fire truck to avoid a burning electrical post.

Opolentisima said that while the fire scene was accessible they were wary of accidentally touching live wires that were hanging freely near the burning structures.

The second casualty was identified as Sheemy del Mar, 28, who lives across the destroyed building.

She was said to have died of heart attack after falling unconscious while watching flamed engulf the building across her house.

City Councilor Dave Tumulak said responding Basak Pardo Emergency Response (BPER) personnel rushed del Mar to Velez

General Hospital but she was unresponsive and died at 6:30 a.m.

"Medic nato ang naghatud niya sa Velez. Giatake. Gikuyawan sa sunog. Nagpuyo ni siya sa atbang (Our medic brought her to the hospital. She had a heart attack. She was so frightened by the fire. She lived just across the burned building)" said Tumulak, City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council chairman and former Basak pardo barangay captain.

He said Labuga and the five injured victims were treated for free under the City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicines Program.

Meanwhile, Opolentisima said they are investigating who was in the room when the fire started.

 "Naa'y niingon na naa daw batan-on nag-occupy didto, nakit-an daw nila naay nagsiga sa sod, then muingon sad na gihimong (There were those who said a young man occupied that room, that they saw light inside the room; but others say the room was used as a) stockroom sa tag-iya. Wa na lagi muangkon (by the owner.  No one is now owning up.)," the fire investigator said.

One Roberto Wong served as the building's caretaker.

Opolentisima said they would talk again with Ortiz and the Alexa's mother, who was apparently still in shock when he spoke with her.

Rebecca Saducas, 60, who also took care of Alexa and her sister before Ortiz did, said she last met Alexa Friday afternoon, after the latter begged to go with her to Barangay Bulacao, Cebu Ctiy to play with her grandchildren.

"Tabi-an nang bataa ug paraygon (She likes to talk and is affectionate)," Saducas said of Alexa.

 "Gusto gyud niya mukuyog ato. Ni-ana pa akong apo na pakuyoga lola kay gusto sad makigduwa, unya di man kaigo akong plete para namo. Di unta 'to siya mamatay (She really wanted to go with us. My granddaughter also begged me to allow her because they liked to play together, but I did not have enough money for fare for the three of us. Had I gave in, she would not have died," Saducas cried in lament.

It was the ninth fire incident, so far, to have hit Metro Cebu since the start of December. The incident immediately prior to yesterday's fire happened just the day before, when a 30-minute blaze left 54 families homeless in Sitio Lemonsito, Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City early morning Friday.

The Cebu City Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) listed 18 families comprising 91 individuals, 21 of whom were lodgers, affected by the yesterday's fire, which destroyed an estimated P400,000 worth of properties.

DSWS Chief Ester Concha said the City Government is providing food packs for three days to the fire victims, who are temporarily housed at the third level of the Parian Barangay Hall./—With Jessa Aqua/RHM (FREEMAN)