The fire that left four people dead in Pasig City on Friday may have been caused by an illegal electrical connection or a lit candle.
According to arson investigator SFO1 Robert Maravilla, many of the nearly 50 houses on E. Santos Street in Barangay Palatiw hit by the fire did not have electricity and relied on candles for light.
“Maybe some of them were using illegal [electrical] connections so that is also a [possible cause],” Maravilla said.
Authorities, however, have established that the blaze that led to the deaths of Fidel Lacia, 60; Enrique Sanchez, 64; Joanne Faye Peligro, 2, and Jerra Mhiel Peligro, 4, began in the house of Widney Rivas, alias Toto, at 3:42 p.m. on Friday.
Because the adjacent houses were made of light materials, the fire spread quickly, Maravilla said.
It reached the fourth alarm before it was put out at 5:15 p.m., according to SFO1 Carolina Orlina.
“That was when we found inside separate houses the fatalities. Apparently, they were trapped by the fire,” Maravilla told the Inquirer, adding that the victims died due to asphyxia by burning.
“The area was difficult to penetrate. The fire trucks could not get to the area because only two people could fit in the alley that leads to the houses,” he added.