‘Children may have locked themselves in bedroom’
The two children who were burned alive inside one of the rooms of a bungalow house in barangay Tayud, Consolacion town last Wednesday morning may have accidentally locked themselves in, a fire investigator said yesterday.
SFO1 Jemerecio Borres said the kids Rafael Valmoria, 6 and her younger sister Mikay, 5 shouldn’t have been left alone in the house without adult supervision.
“Dapat kung mahabilin ang mga bata sa balay dapat naa gyud magbantay nga edaran kay basin unsa ray mahunahunaan sa mga bata unya wa pa sa mga buot (Kids should not be left alone in the house without adult supervision since they can do every thing they can think of),” Borres said.
Borres said he will meet the foster parents of the kids who arrived yesterday.
He said he’s still verifying reports that the children were last seen playing with matches which may have caused the fire.
Wedding
“Sa pagkakaron (For now), we are still empty handed. We can’t just conclude that the kids may have started the fire by playing with matches. We don’t want to hurry and end up with the wrong conclusion,” Borres said.
Borres said the children were left in the care of their neighbors Arthur and Beatrice Commendador for at least two weeks after their foster parents went to Manila to attend the wedding of their biological child.
The two kids were originally from Malaybalay, Bukidnon and were brought to Cebu by Rudy Bandibas and his wife who volunteered to take them under their care.
Borres said Beatrice told him that she left the two kids to tend the lawn of a neighbor.
When she got back at 10:30 a.m. of Wednesday, flames were already coming out of the bedroom window.
She tried opening the bedroom door, but failed to do so even with the help of a neighbor who got off his motorcycle.
Not giving up, they instead tried dousing the fire with buckets of water but failed.
Damage was pegged at P300,000. Two motorcycles, several appliances and household items were destroyed.
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