4-month-old baby killed in Cebu City fire

CEBU CITY—A four-month-old baby was killed in a fire that gutted a two-story house in Barangay (village) Lorega San Miguel here on Friday morning.

John Carlo Paragoso was left unintentionally by his parents inside their bedroom on the second floor when the fire broke out at 6:33 a.m.

Cebu City fire marshal Rogelio Bongbong said the baby’s body was later found underneath the debris on ground floor after the second floor collapsed.

Ryan Paragoso and his wife Joan were able to save their two other children, aged 4 and over one year old. Ryan suffered minor burns on the right foot.

Cebu City fire department officials and barangay officials said at least 10 houses were destroyed in the fire that might have been caused by faulty electrical wiring in Paragoso’s home.

Ryan said the thick smoke woke him up from his sleep.

When he realized that the house was on fire, he and Joan tried to put it out.

But when the blaze got bigger, the couple fled out of the house with their two other children and forgot John who was on the bed.

Ryan said that when he realized that John was still in the room, he tried to go back to the house.

“But I could no longer get back inside because the fire was already too big,” he said.

The fire happened close to the old Lorega cemetery where structures in the area were also burned by a big fire more than a year ago.