Couple loses 4 children, home in Leyte fire

TACLOBAN CITY–After a trip to the market  early Wednesday morning, a couple returned home to find their house in Barangay 78, Tacloban City, Leyte and their children gone.

They went to the market to buy ingredients for the food they were going to serve at their small carenderia but when Maribel Morales and husband Glen returned home, their house was gone and so were their four children.

A fire broke out in their house at 4:30 a.m., trapping their four children who were sleeping on the second floor.

Supt. Domingo Cabillan, Tacloban police chief, identified the fatalities as Dan Jade Morales, 16 and his younger siblings Glen Mark, 14; Gleen Marie, 11; and Gwyneth, 9.

Their bodies were found by firefighters in one of the rooms on the second floor, said Cabillan.

“They were trapped inside their house and were burned (alive),” he added.

Cabillan said that initial findings of the Bureau of Fire showed that the fire might have been caused either by a rice cooker that could have overheated, by a lighted “super kalan” or by an improvised stove which was left unattended.

“The parents were being investigated if they could be charged with negligence,” said Cabillan. CDG/rga

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