Yuletide tears for fire victims

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines  – Silence cloaked the usually festive atmosphere of Yuletide as tears flowed among the relatives of 15 victims who died in the pre-dawn fire that razed the five-story Bread and Breakfast Pension House last Sunday.

Another victim – 20-year-old Julius Gadduang – succumbed to complications yesterday due to burns and asthma while being treated at a Catholic-run hospital in Cagayan province, bringing the fatalities to 16.

The relatives were waiting their turn to enter the narrow underground morgue of Funeraria Ortiz in Balzain, Tuguegarao City to scrutinize every charred body for signs that could help them identify their loved ones.

Couple Pete and Arased Fondevilla will have the bleakest Christmas not only because they lost their business but also because they lost five family members in the fire that razed their hotel.

Instead of celebrating the second wedding anniversary of their son Norman and wife Anibelle, the couple is now recuperating at the Cagayan Valley Regional Medical Center from burns and other injuries sustained in the tragic fire.

The remains of their family members and their household help were found in one portion of the building.

Fondevilla’s daughter-in-law, Anibelle 30, was more than one month pregnant, according to relatives

They said Anibelle and Norman chose to spend their anniversary like any ordinary day, since she was advised by her doctor to take rest in bed.

A cousin, Judith Comin-Vehemente, said family members rushed to Funeraria Ortiz from Ilagan, Isabela upon hearing the tragic news over local radio.

She said at around 6:30 a.m., electricity was suddenly cut at the Comin’s ancestral residence in Barangay Bagumbayan. The family just came from the traditional dawn Mass.

Vehemente said their electrician neighbor was surprised to see the fuses in the house’s main switch box totally burned.

“Our neighbor said we were lucky that the short circuit did not happen that night. Otherwise no one would notice until the house gets burned,” she added.

It was then that they realized that the moment of the power failure was the same instance when firefighters contained the hotel conflagration in Tuguegarao.

Mildred de Leon, a daughter of the Fondevilla’s, also perished in the blaze with her two kids Josh, 5, and Karyl, 12 and their nanny identified as Jennifer Agtarap. Mildred’s husband is yet to be informed of the tragic death of his family as of this writing, according to relatives.

It was not the first time the Fondevilla’s Bread and Breakfast Hotel was struck by fire, according to Superintendent Pedro Martirez, city police chief. He said investigators are digging into reports that the same hotel had a minor fire incident years ago.

Martirez lamented that the local fire department has inadequate tools and facilities.

“We could have rescued more occupants had there been adequate equipment like axes to release trapped victims,” he said, admitting that he saw one victim die before his eyes when the latter failed to squeeze through the grilled windows of the burning hotel.

At the Ortiz funeral home in barangay Balzain, relatives of the victims waited in agony and tears late Sunday for the release of the charred bodies of their loved ones, most of them burned beyond recognition.

“I feel sad when I heard about the tragedy... knowing that ULS (University of La Salette) is involved in this issue… and when I found out some of my friends were injured... but when someone confirmed that two of my beloved friends, batchmates and Salettinian brothers, were on the list of fatalities, I can’t help it but cry,” lamented Ederlyn Santos, a student of University of La Salette in Santiago city whose nine schoolmates died in the blaze.

The nine Salettinians were to take the nursing Board examinations slated last Sunday and Monday in Tuguegarao.

Grief and pain

Meanwhile, an official of the Archdiocese of Tuguegarao expressed condolences to the families of the 16 people who perished in the fire.

In an interview over Church-run Radio Veritas, Archdiocese of Tuguegarao vice chancellor Fr. Fidel Agatep “relayed our sympathy to those who died especially to the families of the 12 nursing graduates who died as well as the owners of the Bed and Breakfast Pension House that caught fire.”

He said that the Archdiocese has organized a Mass for the dead that would be held in the Cathedral. The Mass celebrants are Tuguegarao Auxiliary Bishop Ricardo Baccay and Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan.

Expected to attend the Mass are students from the different nursing schools in Tuguegarao.

Many of the priests who went to the wake of the victims blessed the coffins.

“We are also coordinating with the La Salette fathers of the University of La Salette, where many of the victim nursing students came from. They were the ones who gave spiritual council to the parents,” Fr. Agatep said.

He added that the La Salette priests also promised to coordinate with the local government on how they could render assistance to the family and to give the victims decent burials. – Evelyn Macairan