New Year’s Day fire kills 3 women in Angeles City

ANGELES CITY — A fire that gutted a car on Monday morning, New Year’s Day, ) spread to two houses in a residential subdivision in Barangay Tabun and killed three women.

The remains of Edith Guinto, 43, and Ella Marie Babon, 16, were found huddled inside the bathroom at the second floor of Guinto’s two-story house on Lot 17, Block 17, San Diego Street in Fiesta Community, according to Chief Insp. Raymund Manimbo, chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection in the city.

The body of Babon’s mother, Elizabeth Bautista, was found in the bedroom of the second floor.

Manimbo said the three women might not have been able to run out of the burning structure because the burning car, a Toyota Vios, blocked the main entrance.

The cause of the blaze that struck the vehicle (with license plate number AVA 9421) has yet to be determined.

The neighbors reported seeing the burning car at past 4 a.m.

Guintu’s relatives and her neighbors have yet to issue sworn statements about the incident.

No one was hurt in the burning house next door.

The fire was suppressed at 5:30 a.m. It was the first fatal fire in the city since August 2017, Manimbo said. /atm