3 die in boarding house fire; foul play eyed

MANILA, Philippines - Three people died when a fire that reportedly started in a bakery spread to their boarding house in Mandaluyong City before dawn yesterday.

The fatalities were identified by police as boarders Wendell Cabanglan, 23; Ryan Lopez, 27; and Dandy Gozarin, 28. Cabanglan was an information technology specialist while Lopez and Gozarin were accountants.

Mandaluyong fire marshal Nahum Tarroza said they are eyeing the possibility of foul play.

“The fire was so quick to have left three people dead,” he said.

Though Tarroza declined to say where the fire could have originated, initial reports state it started in the bakery beside the boarding house.

Witnesses told investigators that the fire started at around past 1 a.m. at the bakery along Lions Road in Barangay Barangka and quickly spread to the adjacent boarding house before it was put out around half an hour later.

Five other boarders managed to escape the burning boarding house. Investigators are still trying to find out what caused the fire and estimating the cost of property destroyed by the blaze.