Fire guts Juicos’ old QC home; Amorsolos saved

A fire in Quezon City on Monday morning gutted a house designed by National Artist for Architecture Pablo Antonio and once owned by the family of former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office chair Margarita Juico and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Philip Juico.

About half a million pesos worth of property were damaged, but among the valuables saved from the ancestral home were three paintings by another national artist, the late painter Fernando Amorsolo, according to Senior Supt. Manuel Manuel, the city fire marshal.

The fire reportedly started on the second floor of the two-story house on Roosevelt Avenue, Barangay Paraiso, at 9:29 a.m. It reached the third alarm in less than 15 minutes as the flames spread quickly inside the structure, which was partly made of wood.

The cause remained under investigation at press time. No one was reported injured in the fire, which was declared out about an hour later, as only a caretaker was staying in the property, Manuel said.

Built in 1967, the house was sold by the Juicos earlier this year to Jose Acusar, chair of New San Jose Builders Inc., the official added.

A Radyo Inquirer report quoted a Juico family member as saying that there were plans to turn the house into a national heritage site. —Jovic Yee, Radyo Inquirer