3 kids killed, grandmother hurt in Bacolod City fire

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines—Three children were killed while their grandmother was injured in a fire that hit six houses in Barangay (village) Handumanan, Bacolod City, at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Killed were Rica Montero, 17, a deaf mute, and her siblings Rex, 7, and Arvin, 3, Senior Inspector Ruel Culanag said. Injured was their grandmother Estalita Montero, 68, who sustained burns in various parts of her body.

Culanag said Estalita was cooking rice that she left unattended on the stove. She left the house and locked her three grandchildren and a 4-year-old grandson in the house.

The four-year-old survived because he was able to climb out of a window.

Rica was able to get out of the house to ask for help from the neighbors but no one could understand her so she returned to the house to save her two other siblings but it was too late as the fire had grown big.

The grandmother sustained burns when she returned to the burning house and tried to save her grandchildren. She was saved by her relative Simon Tiopez, 22.

The Montero house and five others were affected by the fire.

On Monday, 57 houses were also destroyed, 10 persons were injured and about P1.5 million worth of properties lost when fire broke out at about 8:40 a.m. Monday, in Purok Magtiayon, Barangay 10, in Bacolod City.

Chief Insp. Bartolome Beliran, fire marshal of the City Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), said the fire that lasted for almost two hours, affected about 274 families.

The number of families affected was four times the number of houses destroyed because some of them were occupied by two to five families.

He said that although the BFP office was near Purok Matiayon, firefighters had a hard time penetrating the area since the pathways were narrow, and the fire started at the center of the place, where most of the houses were built close to each other.

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