20160216 Philippines Fire kills father on Valentine’s night
Philippines Feb 15 2016 “Houses”
Dead : dead 1 to 4 Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire kills father on Valentine’s night
Updated: 2016-02-16-00:00
Before Valentine’s Day drew to a close, a family lost their father to a fire which razed the house he was staying in Sitio Bumbil, Barangay Losaran, Cebu City.
When the flames fizzled out, neighbors found the already charred body of 57-year-old Elpidio Lauria. He was not able to get out of the house and was thought to be sleeping when the flames engulfed it.
According to Police Officer 3 Winston Ybañez, investigator at the Homicide Section of the Cebu City Police Office, Lauria just came from the house of a relative to celebrate the wedding of his nephew.
Lauria, a farmer, allegedly had a drinking spree with friends and relatives at the party and went home already groggy.
Ybañez said Lauria lived alone in the house in Barangay Losaran to look after the family’s farm while the rest of the family stays in Barangay Talamban where his wife works.
Informants shared that when Lauria arrived home, he allegedly lighted a candle as his source of light inside. This as the house did not have any electrical connection.
However, Lauria allegedly placed the candle on the wooden floor of the house and went on to sleep.
It was around 11:30 p.m. when two barangay tanods noticed a blaze in the area. They searched where the smokes were coming from and found out that Lauria’s house was already gutted by the fire.
The structure was made of light materials.
Ybañez said as of yesterday, they were convinced that there was no foul play in the incident. However, he said they are also not discounting that possibility.
He said they suggested to Lauria’s family that the victim’s body undergo autopsy to make sure that there was no criminal action involved in the incident.
Meanwhile, a fire gutted out the old office of the mayor in Danao City on Sunday night, courtesy of a possible electrical short circuit.
Senior Fire Officer 1 William Manto said the alarm was received at 7:30 p.m. and was responded to immediately. After 10 minutes of battling with the fire, firefighters declared it under control.
In a TV Patrol Central Visayas report, witnesses said they heard a loud explosion past 7 p.m. and noticed thick smokes billowing from the old mayor’s office. That was when they called the fire station for help.
Manto said when the fire broke out, nobody was inside the office. He added that the firefighters were able to contain the fire at 7:58 p.m.
Investigations are still ongoing.
Manto said the office is under renovation and nobody is presently using it, except for some workers doing the repair works. There were no appliances inside the office but there were papers kept in the shelves.
Manto said he could not assess yet the amount of the damage because he still has to check the building’s status.
In Tuburan town, a house made of light materials was also razed by a fire yesterday morning in Barangay Putat, again because of electrical short circuit.
Lolita Caray’s house was reduced to ashes after her circuit breaker exploded past 8 a.m., investigators reported.
Fire Office 2 Rochelle Aline Bravo of Tuburan Fire Station said the station received the alarm at 8:30 a.m. yesterday.
Caray told investigators that she heard an explosion coming from the circuit breaker. The fire from the circuit breaker then spread through the house quickly that when the fire truck arrived, the structure was already consumed by the flames.
Bravo said the ground commander declared fire out at 9:30 a.m. and pegged the damage at P20,000.
Web Source: Philstar
http://www.philstar.com/cebu-news/2016/02/16/1553587/fire-kills-father-valentines-night