Two more Cebuano children killed in fire

CEBU — Parents leaving small children home alone has suddenly become a very tragic and deadly practice in Cebu.

Just a day after three children, aged 11 months to six years, died in Toledo City Monday, two more children, aged three and five, suffered the same fate in Asturias.

In both instances, the children were left alone by their elders who were either at work or doing some chores.

And just a few days before, a one-year-old girl in Consolacion, left in the care of slightly older siblings, was also killed in a fire.

Social welfare officials and children’s rights advocates quickly lobbied for action against the victims’ parents if they are found to have neglected or abandoned their children.

In the Asturias incident, Adel and Johnrel Bugto, aged five and three, respectively, were left inside their home by an elder sister, Adelyn, 12, while she went out to watch television at a neighbor’s house just 25 meters away.

Their mother had gone to fetch water while their father was in the town plying a tricycle.

Adelyn said her younger siblings were asleep when she left them. Minutes later, the house went up in flames, the fire apparently caused by a fallen kerosene lamp.

Most of their neighbors were glued to their TV sets and were unaware of the fire until an explosion drove them out of their houses and realized too late what was happening.

The victims’ mother, who came running upon learning what happened, could only watch in horror as their house burned. — Freeman News Service