Couple killed as fire hits Cebu neighborhood

CEBU CITY, Philippines—A couple was killed when fire destroyed 21 houses in a neighborhood here early Wednesday morning.

Edgardo Miego, 60 and his wife Margarita 57, were asleep when fire broke out in the living room of their house along A. Lopez Street, in Barangay Labangon at 1:27 a.m. Their bedroom was beside the living room.

Victor Buendia, Labangon barangay captain, said the couple’s daughter, Jolly Dionson, her husband Dante and their five-year-old daughter were able to flee the burning house through a fire exit on the balcony.

In her account to the authorities, Jolly said she woke up when her daughter asked for milk but on her way downstairs, she was greeted by thick smoke from the ground floor.

She alerted her husband, who carried their daughter, and the three managed to get out of the house.

Jolly and her husband then asked their neighbors to rescue her parents, who were still trapped inside the house. But by then, the fire had already spread throughout the ground floor.

Edgardo, a former worker of San Miguel Corporation, was partially paralyzed due to a stroke but he could still walk, according to Buendia.

Margarita was a real estate broker.

The couple has three children, two of whom were overseas workers.

The cause of the fire remained unknown although Buendia said it might have been triggered by faulty electrical wiring.

Social workers from the Department of Social Welfare and Development extended food assistance to the fire victims. Buendia said the barangay would spend part of their P700,000 in calamity fund to help purchase construction materials for the fire victims.