MANILA, Philippines – A three-hour fire that began late Saturday night killed three children who were sleeping when the blaze gobbled a row of shanties which served as homes to some 100 families in Pasay City, officials said.
Six others were injured in the fire at F.B. Harrison Street, which firefighters put out early Sunday morning, according to Pasay fire marshal Douglas Guiyab.
The official identified the fatalities as John Jason Alberca, 2, John Angelo Alberca, 2, and Chris Alberca, 3.
Guiyab said the children’s parents left them at home to buy some medicines and when they returned, the house was already up in flames.
The fire reached the fourth alarm before firefighters extinguished the flames around 2:50 a.m. Sunday.
Guiyab said it appeared that an unattended candle could have ignited a flammable material which led to the blaze. Before the fire, the residents in the area had a power outage.