2 boys killed in Dalaguete fire

Two cousins, aged four and three, were burned to death after they were trapped in a burning bamboo house in barangay Catolohan, Dalaguete town, southern Cebu.

The cause of the fire has yet to be established.

Jayden Sidney Indig, 4,  and John Mark Jorolan, 3,  were  playing alone in  the house of Anastacio Asenjo, 51, when the fire broke out around 8 a.m. last Tuesday.

Asenjo is  Jayden’s grandfather in whose care the boy was left by his mother who works in Cebu City.

PO3 Maximo Belciña, investigator of the Dalaguete police station, said the two boys may have been suffocated by the thick smoke and unable to run out in time.

Plates were found beside their charred bodies in the living room.

Police said they received a report that the boys were playing make believe cooking (luto-luto)at the time.

Jayden’s grandfather  left  the house  heading for  his farm around 10 minutes before the fire started.

Before the fire, 4-year-old  Indig went to the house of Johan Mark,  3,  son of a barangay councilor who lived  some 20 meters from his grandfather’s house.

The two boys played there then left.

Marlo Becbec, a barangay tanod,  said he saw the house of Asenjo on fire while he was walking along the  road.

The fire  was already big and had engulfed the house when Becbec reached it.

Some men working on a road construction project rushed to the house after hearing the children shouting for help.

Workers tossed pails of water in an attempt to put out the fire.

Rydal Cisneros, municipal administrator and information officer of Dalaguete, said the boys’ remains were brought to the elementary school for a vigil wake.

The boys’ grieving families will be assisted  through a stress debriefing by social welfare workers, said Cisneros.