Charred body confirmed to be that of missing Duljo fire resident

Two residents sift through the rubble of their house, one of the 18 houses on C. Padilla St., Barangay Duljo Fatima, Cebu City that were destroyed the night before by a fire that hit the area on Jan. 5, 2019./Photo by Benjie Talisic

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Authorities sifting through the rubble of the burned houses in Barangay Duljo Fatima here confirmed that the charred body found in the area was that of missing resident Christian Lopez.

Lopez, 43, was identified by his family, said Fire Chief Inspector Noel Nelson Ababon, Cebu City’s fire marshall.

Personnel from the Scene of the Crime Operatives (Soco) of the Central Visayas Regional Crime Laboratory Office (RCLO-7)  documented the process of recovering the body, Ababon said.

There was an initial confusion as to the whereabouts of Ababon after a village councilman, Gian Godofredo, told Cebu Daily News Digital hours after Saturday’s fire, or at dawn of Sunday,  that some members of the Lopez family told him that Christian was alive and had returned to his family.

Later on Sunday, however, the mother of Lopez said her son remained missing and was apprehensive that the body found near their burned house,  which was charred beyond recognition, was that of her son.

According to Ababon, it was Leo Jumawan, a relative of Lopez, who  found the body at around  4 p.m. of Sunday.

Shortly before midnight on Sunday, January 6,  the remains were finally confirmed to be that of Lopez.

Last Saturday’s fire destroyed 18 houses and displaced 128 individuals from 32 families, Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) chief Nagiel Bañacia has reported.

It was the second fire to hit Duljo Fatima in a span of ten days. A huge fire that engulfed four sitios (sub-villages) of Duljo Fatima at dawn on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 2018, destroyed over 400 houses and rendered more than 2,000 people homeless./elb