2 children die in Batangas fire

BATANGAS CITY—Two toddlers burned to death when fire ate up their house shortly after their parents left them home alone to go to work early Friday morning in Lipa City in Batangas province, officials said.

Senior Insp. Ferdinand Von Nicasio, chief of the Lipa City fire department, said firemen found the charred bodies of Prince Johann Dimailig, 4, and his sister Jessa Angelica, 3, after they put out the blaze in Barangay Balintawak, Lipa City before 8 a.m.

Firemen learned the children’s parents usually leave their children for at least an hour when they go to work. The children’s father is a janitor at a high school in Lipa and sells balut as a sideline while the mother is a factory worker.

Nicasio said the father usually leaves the children for about an hour when he goes to school. “Sometimes the father brings his children with him to school,” he added.

On Friday, the parents could not find a companion for their children, said Nicasio

According to the neighbors, the fire was “already big” when they learned that the two children were inside the house and could do nothing to save them.

Nicasio said the parents left the house before 7 a.m. The fire is believed to have started at 7:25 with the fire department receiving the alarm at 7:39 a.m..

“Overloading and illegal tapping caused the short circuit in the house that caught fire,” he said.