5 kids eaten up by fire in Valenzuela City

By Ronron
January 7, 2007 (Sunday)

Manila - Five children were killed in a pre-dawn fire Sunday in Valenzuela City after they were trapped inside their house allegedly due to a padlocked door.

Chief Insp. Agapito Nacario, Valenzuela City Fire chief, identified the victims as Vevita siblings, Herbert, 10; Henrieta, 8; Henessey, 7; Marirold, 6; and, Harold, Jr., 3; all residents of Dulong Carnation in Barangay Malinta.

“All five are charred beyond recognition… It’s as if they were cremated because all that’s left are their bones,” Nacario said in a phone interview yesterday.

The fire official disclosed that the five, and their eldest sibling, Herald, 12, were left by their parents at around 12 midnight as the latter went to market to buy vegetables to be sold later in the day at a flea market nearby.

A lit candle was allegedly left by the Vevita couple - Harold, 37, and Marites, 35, to illuminate the interior of their shanty, which is made of light materials.

“This (unattended lit candle) is believed to be the cause of the fire, which started at the shanty’s kitchen. The residents in the area were using candles because there was no power supply in the past few days there,” Nacario said in Filipino.

He said the fire started at 2:10 am and was put out only at 5:26 am. It reached the fifth alarm.

Herald managed to survive by jumping off the window from their shanty’s mezzanine. He sustained second-degree burns and fractured arms, and was brought to the Valenzuela General Hospital for medical treatment.

Due to the delayed reporting to fire authorities and the difficulty by firemen in penetrating the affected depressed community, a total of 97 shanties were gutted down by the fire, leaving104 families or 549 people homeless.

Cost of damage to properties was pegged at P5 million.

“If indeed it is true that the house (of the Vevita’s) was padlocked, and that there was no exit, then we may charge the parents for a criminal liability under Presidential Decree 1185 or Child Abuse Act, which prohibits locking up of minors,” Nacario said./DMS