Two brothers aged four and one were killed in a fire that engulfed their house while their mother went out to fetch water from a spring in the mountain village of Bato, Sibonga town, about 50.7 km south of this city.
Ezekiel Gab Sarnillo and his younger brother Philip Hanz were sleeping inside their room when the fire broke out about 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Their remains were later found by firefighters under the rubble, said PO2 Ederlino Bacusmo, Sibonga police investigator.
SFO3 Julde Deposa, Sibonga Fire Marshall, said the fire might have been triggered by short circuit due to the overheated ceiling fan.
Gemna Sarnillo, the boys’ mother, said her children were sleeping inside the room with the ceiling fan about 3 p.m. She decided to fetch water from a spring and then buy some supplies from the neighborhood convenience store.
At that time, the boys’ father, Armando was working as a security guard in Cebu City while two elder siblings aged 10 and eight were in school.
When she went back, she was shocked to find that their house was already razed to the ground.
She screamed as she searched for her sons but her neighbors told her that they might have been trapped inside the house during the fire.
Bacusmo said the fire happened about 3:30 p.m. but the fire department received the fire alarm past 4 p.m. because of the house’s distance from the town proper.
The firefighters later found the charred remains of the two boys under the debris, said Bacusmo.
Bacusmo said they brought Sarnillo to the police station to secure her because her in-laws and her husband were angry at her for leaving her children alone in the house.
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