Fire kills baby as siblings watch

A five-month-old baby girl perished in a fire that gutted their house in Caloocan City Friday night.

Gilian Rapiz was alone in their house at Phase 3, Package 2, Block 48, Lot 13, Bagong Silang, Caloocan City when the fire broke out at around 7:30 p.m.

Arson probers said her four siblings were outside the house playing with other children when neighbors saw thick smoke billowing from the windows of the house.

Neighbors told arson probers that the girl’s eldest sibling, Karen, 11, tried to save the baby but she was prevented by their neighbors from entering the burning house.

Gillian’s other siblings Vincent, nine; Debbie, seven, and Siege, four, were shivering with fear as firefighters contained the blaze. The children’s mother Estella was working as a sewer in a nearby factory while their father has been locked up in the Caloocan City jail on drug related charges.

SPO1 Gaudencio Domingo of the Caloocan City police District Investigation and Intelligence Division, said a lighted candle could have fallen on combustible materials and caused the fire that suddenly engulfed the victim’s house. The house had no electricity.

Timely arrival of firelighters from Caloocan City and neighboring towns and cities prevented the fire from spreading to adjacent houses.

Meanwhile, a fire of still unknown origin struck a school in Pandacan, Manila.

According to the Manila Fire Department, the blaze struck the St. Joseph School at about 3:38 p.m. It was declared out at 3:55 p.m.

The blaze, which reached the second alarm level, was nowhere near the oil depots, according to the Manila Fire Department.

Damage caused by the fire was still being determined as of presstime. There were no reported injuries or deaths in that fire. – Mike Frialde and Pete Laude