Two charred bodies found amid Punta fire debris

THE bodies of two men, including that of a stroke victim suffering depression, were found a day after Wednesday night’s fire that razed 127 houses in barangay Punta Princesa.

The charred remains of Domingo “Inggot” Gacasan, 44, and fisherman Rodolfo Paras, 47, were pulled out from the debris a few hours from each other.

The remains of Gacasan, a former foreman, were uncovered at the ground floor of his house around 10 a.m.

Investigators were trying to verify reports that the fire started in his house, possibly by Gacasan.

Gregoria Bacon, mother of Gacasan’s live-in partner, told investigators Gacasan had been depressed since he suffered two strokes, which affected his speech. He lost his job after his illness.

Bacon said she was attending to her mini-store in the first floor of the two-story house when she heard screams for help.

When she looked up, she said she saw Gacasan with his clothes on fire by the window of room upstairs.

She said Gacasan took off his burning clothes and closed the window.

His daughter, another witness, told Senior Supt. Aderson Comar also described seeing Gacasan with his clothes on fire.

Bacon’s neighbor Eugenio Lacaba, who lived next door, said he was watching TV when he saw Gacasan on fire at the second floor of his house.

Lacaba said he rushed to put out the fire but couldn’t enter the second floor when the flames grew bigger.

Four sitios of Trinidad, Tuburan, Arco and Mercom were ravaged by the fire which spread quickly and left 300 families homeless.

Bacon said Gacasan used to be a foreman before he suffered strokes.

Earlier that day, Gacasan told his live-in partner, Lourdes, at breakfast that he would spend the whole day upstairs.

When she went upstairs asking Gacasan to come down about 3 p.m., he refused and told Lourdes that people were going to kill him.

The other fatality, a fisherman, was found five meters away from his house at 11:30 a.m.

Scavengers found Paras’ charred body under a fallen concrete fence.

His wife Aurelia, a schoolteacher, claimed the remains even though it was badly burned and barely recognizable, said SPO3 Ruth Violanza.

Paras may have been sleeping when the fire started then awoke and ran out, only to have the concrete fence fall on him.

PO2 Ricky Coca of the Cebu City Police Office said they still had to verify if the remains were really that of Paras.

A hotel cook, Camilo Lopez, suffered severe burns in the arms and face after he tried to save his computer games console from his burning house.

Paras, a former construction worker at WTG Construction, turned to fishing when he got older.

He may have died of smoke inhalation, said fire fighters.

His wife, a grade-school teacher, was in shock when she was called to go to the site during her lunch break yesterday.

She said she last saw her husband about 3 a.m. last Wednesday when he was about to set off to sea. Nobody had seen him since then.  Correspondents Patricia Andrea Pateña and Jhunnex Napallacan with a report from Correspondent Chito O. Aragon