Fire breaks out near 3 wakes; 100 families left homeless

A fire hit a residential area in Quezon City where three wakes were being held, leaving 100 families homeless and one corpse charred beyond recognition.

Fire Officer 3 Numeriano Villanueva identified the burnt corpse as that of Paulino Aragon, a former security guard who was  74 years old when he died.

Fire Chief Inspector Danilo Jamito, chief of the operations division of the Quezon City Fire District, said the blaze started in one of the houses on Apollo Street in Barangay West Riverside, San Francisco Del Monte at around 7 a.m. yesterday.

The fire broke out while residents were mourning the death of three people in the neighborhood.

Villanueva said the narrow alleys surrounding the house where Aragon’s wake was being held prevented his relatives from bringing his coffin out.

Villanueva said the two other coffins, meanwhile, were saved from the blaze.

Jamito told The STAR that fire investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire, but residents said the fire may have been caused by faulty electrical wiring in one of the houses.

Jamito said the fire destroyed around 50 houses and left some 100 families homeless.

He placed the damage to property at around P2 million, noting that the houses were not shanties and were partly made of concrete. Jamito said the fire reached fourth alarm and was put out at around 11:30 a.m. There were no reported casualties or injuries.