CEBU CITY—A 79-year-old man sustained burns on his head after he entered their burning house to rescue his three grandchildren on Thursday morning.
Tomas Precillas of Sitio (sub-village) Tinago in Barangay (village) Alang-Alang in Mandaue City was brought to the Mandaue City Hospital for treatment of first-degree burns on his head.
At about the same time, a thick black smoke also engulfed the upper floors of the Lexmark Plaza 1 located at the Cebu Business Park in Cebu City causing a pregnant woman to faint while she and her co-employee were asked to vacate the building.
READ: Pregnant employee unconscious, workers evacuate building at Cebu Business Park
However, the said woman was immediately revived.
Prescillas was doing a chore outside when the fire believed to have started from an electrical short circuit inside one of the two bedrooms at their rented house past 9 a.m.
The fire later spread to an adjacent room occupied by Precillas’ one-year-old grandchild.
After noticing the commotion caused by the fire, Precillas’ immediately ran into their house to rescue his two grandchildren, one 5-year-old and another 2-year-old, who were playing in their living room.
He later fetched the one-year-old child who was inside one of their bedrooms which already caught fire.
Meanwhile, fire fighters in Cebu City also responded to a smoke alarm reported at the Lexmark Plaza 1 located at the Cebu City Business Park.
SFO 3 Daniel Relatado said they had to break glass windows on the building’s 22nd floor to clear it of smoke.
Relatado said the smoke alarm started from an uninterruptible power supply connected to one of the computer units on the building’s 22nd floor which started to overheat around 9:13 a.m.
The smoke reached the building’s 23rd and 24th floors.
Responding fire fighters sprayed water on the building’s 22nd floor causing damage in the area and on its 20th and 21st floors. RAM
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