Boy dead in fire

PANGASINAN–A 1-year-old boy died while another was hurt in a fire that razed seven houses in Urdaneta City on Friday night, reports from the police and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said.

Senior Fire Officer 3 Eric Niñalga, chief investigator of the Urdaneta City BFP, said the boy, Jade Elegado, was trapped in a bedroom as the fire devoured the house’s front walls made of bamboo slats. Six other houses in Barangay Dilan-Paurido were razed. A 17-year-old boy, CJ Thurston, was reported hurt.

Niñalga said Elegado could have accidentally kicked a kerosene lamp left by his mother near the door when she went out to buy food at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. Niñalga said the fire was put under control at 10:30 p.m.  Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon

3 foreigners rescued

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY–Soldiers have rescued three foreigners from a yacht that was adrift at sea off El Nido, according to the military.

The Western Command (Wescom), which led the rescue operation, identified the foreigners as Ian Riley, 50, skipper of the yacht and from the United Kingdom; Glenn Cooke, an Australian; and Ryan Mann, 36, an American.

They were aboard the yacht MY Simoune. They had been taken to the El Nido port, Wescom said in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Lt. Cherry Tindog.

The yacht left Hong Kong on June 6 bound for Sabah but ran into bad weather and rough seas, the Wescom statement said.

While they were some 70 nautical miles west of El Nido on

June 12, the yacht engine malfunctioned and  ran out of fuel, prompting the crew to send a distress signal that was picked up by Wescom’s Joint Task Force Malampaya based at the Coast Guard Station in El Nido.

The Wescom report said a Coast Guard vessel was sent to the area amid bad weather and found the yacht north of Lalutaya Island past noon on June 13. Redempto D. Anda, Inquirer Southern Luzon