A retired judge perishes in dawn fire at home
Every night, 77-year-old Delfin Desierdo would light a candle in a small altar at home.
It was an evening habit for the retired judge to remember his wife Gloria who died two years ago.
Perhaps the candle toppled.
The flames that burned down the house in the dawn hours of Friday, killing the widower, was noticed as smoke coming from his room on the ground floor in Honeyville subdivision, barangay Quiot Pardo, Cebu City.
The house went up in flames past 4 a.m.
His daughter Charlene and four other occupants were able to get out unharmed.
Charlene said she woke up in her room in the basement.
“When I was awakened, the fire was already too big. But our room has an emergency door and we were able to escape,” she said.
She said they tried to rescue her father, but the flames were blocking the exit in the upstairs room.
Delfin, who had previously suffered a mild stroke, had difficulty moving around.
Firemen also observed that the two-story house had grill bars in the windows, making it a veritable trap during a fire. Delfin’s body was later found face down in his bedroom.
There was no time to save anything, said Charlene. She was still dressed in a thin sleeping gown with a towel on top of it when she spoke with news reporters yesterday morning.
Her son was able to bring out a bag but nothing valuable was inside.
The iron grills on the house of retired judge Delfin Desiderdo prevented him from using the windows as an emergency exit when fire struck in Honeyville, barangay Quiot, Cebu City. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)
Charlene and her son had arrived in Cebu in June after visiting relatives in the province.
The late judge left three children. Two have households of their own while another lives in the United States. Delfin was once assigned in the municipal court in Sibonga town in south Cebu before retiring.
House helper Michelle Promagera told reporters the retired judge may have woken up at dawn and lighted the candle again.
It was the practice of Charlene and the helper to put out the vigil candle in the house altar in the receiving area near his room before going to sleep.
“I woke up because I thought someone was banging on the windows,” she said in Cebuano. Two children were visiting from the province.
The helper said she emerged in the sala and saw the fire had already spread to the living room furniture and window curtains.
“I carried my kids outside,” said Promagera in Cebuano. But the master of the house was trapped inside.
“He was able to shout for help and gave instructions to open the small window of his room so he could get out. But we are mostly females here so we were helpless,” she said.