Bacolod fire kills woman, 4 grandkids

BACOLOD CITY—A woman and her four grandchildren were killed in a fire that tore through their shanty and three others in the village of Banago in this city on Tuesday.

Firefighters found in the rubble the body of Norma Pido, 76, shielding her four grandchildren—Rachel Gale, 10; and her siblings Shanel Gale, 7, and Jomarie Gale, 6; and their cousin, Katrina Pido, 10.

“It was instinct,” said Bartolome Biliran, city fire marshal. “She used her body to shield her grandchildren from the flames,” Biliran said.

Michelle Pido Gale, mother of the three Gale children and an employee of the Department of Social Services and Development here, was inconsolable.

Rosalina Tinosan, Banago village chief, said Michelle lost all of her children in the fire.

Tinosan quoted some residents as saying that the children had already left the house but ran back inside when they realized that their grandmother was still there.

Biliran said the house where the children died was a “fire trap.” “There was no exit,” he said. Carla P. Gomez, Inquirer Visayas