A six-year-old boy and her younger sister were killed yesterday in a fire that destroyed the house of their foster parents in barangay Tayud, Consolacion town, northern Cebu.
The charred bodies of Rafael Valmoria and Mikay, 5 were found lying face down inside their locked bedroom in the one-story, three bedroom house, an arson investigator said.
Yesterday’s fire is the second to hit Metro Cebu in a span of 18 hours. Three children were treated for smoke inhalation while over 120 homes were destroyed in a fire that spread through a depressed area in barangay Barrio Luz in Cebu City on Tuesday.
According to SF01 Jemecerio Borres of the Consolacion Municipal Fire Station, they were alerted of the fire at 10:35 a.m. Two firetrucks arrived on the scene in sitio Binabag within 10 minutes. The fire was declared under control in about two minutes.
Borres said the victims’ foster parents were reportedly in Manila to attend the wedding of their biological child in Manila.
The fire officer said Rudy Bandibas and his wife had asked their neighbors Arturo and Beatrice Commendador to watch over their children while they were away.
It was learned that Beatrice would spend the night in the house to accompany the children and goes back to her house in the morning to attend to her chores.
Beatrice told investigators that she was on her way to the Bandibas residence to prepare lunch for the children when she saw flames coming out of their bedroom window.
She immediately ran to the house and tried to open the locked bedroom door. A passing motorist got off his motorcycle and tried to help Beatrice break the door open to no avail. They then tried to douse the flames using buckets of water.
Arturo, who also rushed to the burning house, used a piece of wood to break the bedroom’s glass window panes enabling them to gain entry.
Two motorcycles, several appliances and household items were also destroyed by the fire.
Arson investigator Borres said he initially suspected that the children had played with matches.
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