Mom donating kidney to child, 2 others killed in Makati fire

Three women, including a mother set to donate a kidney to one of her children, died in an early-morning fire that gutted a boarding house in Barangay (village) Pio del Pilar in Makati City on Friday.

The two-hour blaze that hit the old house on Santillan Street also left two male tenants seriously injured.

The city fire department named two of the fatalities as Elvie Longab, 40, the organ donor, and her sister Adrianne, 32. Their companion, reportedly a caregiver, could not be immediately identified.

The landlady, Isabelita Tiangco, described them as travelers from Baguio City who had been renting one of the second-floor rooms for about a month. Speaking to investigators, Tiangco said Longab had told her that she was donating her kidney to one of her children in a procedure to be performed in a Makati hospital.

The house had 14 occupants when the fire started at 2:17 a.m. on the second level, which was made mostly of wood, according to Senior Fire Officer II Reynaldo Gonzales.

The three victims were trapped since their window had metal grills and the stairway was already in flames, preventing their escape, Gonzales said, quoting neighbors who had rescued some of the occupants and heard the doomed tenants cry for help.

Fellow tenant Rogelio Ilao, 24, sustained third-degree burns on his face and body, while Bryan Perez, 28, suffered first-degree burns on his arms and feet.

The two men, who escaped through the burning stairs, were brought to Ospital ng Makati for treatment.

Authorities estimated the damage to be at least P1 million and were looking at electrical malfunction as possible cause of the fire, which was prevented from spreading to nearby structures.