Child killed in Quezon City fire

MANILA, Philippines — A four-year old child was killed after a pre-dawn fire blazed through a shanty community in Quezon City Wednesday, a city fire officer said.

Fire Officer 2 Wilson Bautista said Alexander Espiña was killed in the fire that gutted their house and that of roughly 150 others along Mauban Street in Barangay (village) Manresa in Quezon City around 1:50 a.m.

He said Espiña was trapped inside their burning house when he was accidentally left by his mother.

Radio reports said the victim’s mother thought her son escaped with his grandmother, only to find out that he was still trapped at the second floor of their burning house.

“Sunog na sunog yung katawan nung bata,” Bautista said.

The fire reached Task Force Alpha before it was completely put out at 5:23 a.m., rendering 800 persons homeless as per radio reports. Roughly P2 million of properties were said to have been destroyed.

The information on the origin of fire and its cause were not immediately available.