Angry residents beat up man who allegedly started fire in Mandaluyong
MANILA, Philippines—An hour-long fire destroyed some 20 houses in a neighborhood in Mandaluyong City on Monday night, and irate residents who lost their homes beat up the man who allegedly started the blaze at the height of a quarrel with his wife, the authorities said.
The alleged arsonist, Pedro Sinapuelas, 46, was still confined in a hospital with a broken jaw and bruises all over the body on Tuesday as the authorities readied arson charges to be filed against him at the local prosecutor’s office.
Insp. Francia Embalsado, chief of the Bureau of Fire’s Mandaluyong arson investigation unit, said the fire started at 10:40 p.m. while Sinapuelas and his wife Malou were having an argument inside their house in Block 37, Acacia Lane Extension in Barangay Addition Hills.
Before the fire started, he said, Sinapuelas was heard by neighbors shouting, “I will burn down this house.”
Fire broke out shortly afterwards, with the blaze gobbling up a row of houses and destroying property which the Bureau of Fire initially estimated at P200,000.
One resident identified as Godofredo Mangubat suffered cuts and burns while trying to save his family’s valuables, Embalsado said.
The fire was put it out at 11:50 p.m.
While the residents were scrambling to save valuables in the middle of the raging fire, Sinapuelas, armed with a knife, tried to escape. He was, however, chased down by an angry mob.
He stabbed a man in the back during a scuffle. But in the end, he was powerless as other residents ganged up on him.
Embalsado said the resident Sinapuelas stabbed was being treated at a hospital.
Sinapuelas’s wife, was nowhere to be found. “We would like to ask her questions about the fire but she has apparently gone into hiding,” Embalsado said.
