LEGAZPI CITY –– A 76-year-old retired public school teacher was found dead in a fire that gutted his family’s concrete house at dawn on Thursday in a village in Oas town in Albay province, a police report said.
Police Captain Dexter Panganiban, Albay police spokesperson, identified the victim as Pedro Daep Silerio Jr., of Barangay Obaliw Riñas of Oas.
Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) investigators said the fire broke out around 3 a.m. at the victim’s bedroom on the ground floor at the back of the garage.
The fire was reportedly caused by an unattended lighted cigarette.
The report said responding firemen found the victim’s body pinned under a galvanized roof that fell as a result of the fire. The fire also burned down the victim’s car parked at the garage.
The victim’s wife Emma, 75, and their daughter Jonah S. Concepcion, 53, were sleeping in a separate room on the second floor of the house when the fire broke out. The two managed to escape, according to the BFP in Oas.