SHE lost him last week, but Elsa Besal is determined not to lose her child to a fire that ravaged her home in sitio Tabucanal, barangay Pardo in Cebu City at 8 a.m yesterday.
On the day he was scheduled to be buried, a fire hit the home of Elsa’s neighbor.
Already drained from weeping for her five-month-old son’s death, Elsa called on her 10 children to save her dead child.
While everyone was busy taking everything they could carry, Elsa rushed to her son’s coffin and asked people to help her carry it away from the fire.
“I made sure to carry Elwin’s coffin because he may get mad at me for prioritizing material things over him. Even if he’s dead, I won’t abandon him,” she said.
After the fire, her neighbors barred her from bringing the coffin back to her house since it is a bad omen.
Senior Fire Officer Angelito Abanggan of the Cebu City fire department said the fire started at the house of Teria Lapitan.
“We received the fire alarm at 8:44 am and we were able to control it in 3 minutes. Damages are set at P50,000,” he said.
Other houses that were damaged by the fire were owned by Cherryl Carbonero and Daisy Atillo.
Lapitan said they didn’t have any power and weren’t cooking at the time. The case is still being investigated. Correspondent Edison delos Angeles