2 children dead in Tagbilaran City fire

INQUIRER FILES

TAGBILARAN CITY — Two children died Wednesday during a fire that destroyed their home and two other houses in Barangay Manga in this city.

The bodies of Jessabelle Lasco, 3; and Edgardo Lasco Jr., 1, were found inside their house.

Their father, Edgardo Lasco Sr., is in critical condition in a hospital due to severe burns on his body, according to Fire Chief Insp. Matt Reil Pono, city fire marshal.

The fire started at 8:10 p.m. and was controlled at 8:15 p.m.

Damage was placed at P15,000.

Pono said the fire started in the house of the victims who used a gas lamp since the house did not have electricity.

He said a thinner, used by the victims in preparing the bamboo beds they sell, ignited the fire.

The firefighters who arrived saw Lasco Sr. crawling to rescue his children. His face was severely burned.

Lasco Sr. was immediately taken to the Gov. Celestino Gallares Medical Center for treatment.

Mayor Jane Yap said the city government would shoulder the expenses for the burial of the two fatalities and the hospital bill of Lasco Sr.

The city, she said, would also shoulder the airfare of Lasco’s wife who is working in Manila.

“Our staff was coordinating with the wife so she could go home,” she said.