Labangon fire takes life of fraternal twins, 3

DAWN FIRE. Residents of Acacia Place Subdivision on Salvador Ext., Barangay Labangon, watch the burned house of June Estella Myatt, a Filipina married to a Briton, that was hit by a fire predawn on Saturday, killing her two children.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

TWO three-year-old fraternal twins of Filipino-British parentage died of suffocation after a fire destroyed their two-storey house inside an upscale subdivision in Barangay Labangon, Cebu City before dawn yesterday.

Elaine Margaret Myatt and her twin brother Philet were sleeping in their bedroom with their nanny when the fire broke out at 2:55 a.m. in their house on Acacia Place Subdivision.

The 18-year-old nursemaid, Lovelyn Estender, was unconscious when fire fighters found her inside the comfort room of the children’s room, said SFO1 Rogelio Dabalos, an investigator of the Cebu City Fire Department.

The two children, on the other hand, were found lying in their beds, also both unconscious.

Elaine was rushed to the Chong Hua Hospital while Philet was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center but they did not make it alive.

The househelp survived.

The children’s mother June Myatt, a Filipina married to a Briton who was in England at the time of the incident, managed to jump off the terrace outside the master’s bedroom on the second floor of the two-storey house, Dabalos said, quoting accounts of the neighbors of the Myatt family.

Myatt was reportedly a former candidate of Miss Mandaue and Miss Philippines in 2003, said .

No other adjoining structure was burned.

Cebu City Fire Marshall Chief Rogelio Bongabong Jr. said the fire at the Myatt’s residence may have been caused by an air conditioning unit at the living room area on the second floor that exploded due to nonstop use.

The children’s bedroom as well as the master’s bedroom are located on the second floor.

The fire was put under control at 3:15 a.m. Investigators placed damage at P2 million.

Firefighters managed to save the children’s room from the blaze but the victims were suffocated by the smoke, Bongabong said.

“Although the fire may have started from an airconditioning unit, we continue our investigation,” he said.

Yesterday’s fire brought to 220 the fire incidents that were recorded by the Bureau of Fire Protection in Cebu City since January this year. Of these incidents, 17 individuals, mostly minors, died.

Majority of the fire incidents in Cebu City were caused by faulty electrical wiring and unattended open flame like lighted candles, the BFP-Cebu City record showed.

Bongabong encouraged the public to be extra careful and to invest on early warning devices like smoke detectors and heat sensors.

He said each house should have fire extinguishers and alternative exit doors.

“When you’re asleep, please turn off the devices and equipment which are not needed. Also avoid octopus electrical connection,” Bongabong said.

Lita Belacho, 71, vice president of the homeowners’ association of Acacia Place Subdivision, was teary-eyed while looking at the burned house.

Belacho said the two children who died would usually pass by their residence along with their nanny.

“It’s so sad that the kids failed to escape. They did not have the chance to live (to adulthood),” she told reporters.

Members of the media were not allowed to get inside the subdivision.

The remains of the two children now lay at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, according to Bongabong.

The children’s mother was not around when Cebu Daily News visited the children’s wake yesterday.