Quiapo fire fatality puzzles cops
MANILA, Philippines—Manila police are investigating a fire in a lodging house along Quezon Blvd. in Quiapo district, which took two lives and threatened at least four others.
What seemed at first like a simple accident took a puzzling turn as witnesses told police they found one of the fatalities burning in his own bed, where the fire had apparently started.
The fire that flared up at 5:22 a.m. on Wednesday and reached third alarm before being put out after an hour and a half gutted the Red Apple Lodging Inn, which is on the second floor of a five-floor commercial building at 641 Quezon Blvd.
The fire started in the room of an unidentified male, aged 38-40, who had checked in a around midnight.
Witness Helen Omas, the stay-in cashier of the inn, told police that minutes before they smelled and detected smoke coming from his room, they had heard two consecutive explosions, which they assumed came from faulty electrical wiring.
Omas and neighboring lodger Leo Yuson, 41, forced open the victim’s room and saw him lying on his bed, on fire, said Police Officer 3 Amelito Lopez of the MPD-Homicide section, in his report.
Although the actual fire was isolated to the second floor, it also took the life of sales clerk Grace Mendoza, 33, who lived above Red Apple.
She was suffocated as she attempted to go back for her belongings, said Senior Police Officer Dennis Javier of the MPD homicide section. Mendoza was found slumped on the narrow stairs going from the fourth to fifth floor, with only third-degree burns on her arms.
At least four others living in the building were able to escape with only minor injuries, according to the Manila Bureau of Fire Protection. The agency pegged the damage at around P500,000.
Javier said the body has been charred beyond recognition, making it more difficult to determine if there was foul play in the death or it was suicide.
In any case, the unidentified fatality’s state when he was found could not be considered “normal circumstances” in an accidental fire, Javier said.
“We could not determine the cause of the fire, but it started from the bed. If the fire was accidental, the victim would have been roused, and he could have easily gotten up and walked out of the room,” Javier said.
Witnesses said no other person was spotted going into or out of the victim’s room. The bed sheets have been submitted for testing for kerosene although witnesses said they did not smell any.
The victim, when he checked in, was described to be around 5’8″ in height, of brown complexion, wearing a woolen cap, a brown jacket and pants, and carrying a small backpack.
