The lone casualty of the January 16 fire that gutted a commercial building along Junquera Street in Cebu City has been identified as Floilan Daarol, 24, a native of Dipolog City. | via Paul Lauro
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The man, who died in the January 16 fire of a commercial building used as a pension house along Junquera Street in Cebu City, has already been identified.
Floilan Daarol, 24 years old and a native of Dipolog City, was the man who died because of oxygen deprivation due to carbon monoxide poisoning during the fire, said FO2 Emerson Arceo of the Cebu City Fire Department.
Arceo told CDN Digital in a phone interview on January 17 that Daarol was occupying a room on the third floor of the pension house and was possibly sleeping at the onset of the fire.
The victim’s body was found near the door of his room.
Aside from Daarol’s death, the fire also injured a woman.
Read: 1 dead, 1 injured in pension house fire
Arceo said that the dead victim must have tried to go outside his room but he was not able to do this.
Arceo also said that they were considering an electrical fault or an electrical short circuit as the possible cause of the fire.
The witnesses particularly the tenants reportedly told investigators that the fire started from Room 5, which was on the second floor of the building and it was occupied by the caretaker.
The caretaker, however, told investigators that she was not in the room at that time since she was doing errands outside.
Look: More scenes of a commercial building that burned down along Junquera Street
When the fire broke, her tenants notified her and she hurriedly went back to the building to check her room.
She said that when she opened the door the fire was already too big to put out using a fire extinguisher.
Arceo has estimated the damage to property at P300,000.