6 die in Parañaque fire

MANILA, Philippines — Six persons – two pregnant women and their children – died in a fire that gutted part of an abandoned apartment building in Parañaque City on Wednesday night.

Six-year-old Jake Amata and his brother, Jake Angelo Amata, 3, were playing with matches before the blaze broke out at the portion of the YK Apartment Building where they and their pregnant mother, Ana Donna Agrasada, 26, resided, according to a report from the city’s Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).

The other fatalities were Marie Joy de Jesus, 26, and also pregnant, and her sons Jomari Canaria, 6, and Daniel Luis Canaria, 10.

They were all charred beyond recognition, the report stated.

The fire started at past 6 p.m. and reached third alarm until firefighters put it out at around 9:45 p.m.

The blaze displaced around 50 out of the 400 families living in the building and destroyed around P50,000 worth of property.

The building, built in 1965, is considered abandoned, according to the city BFP’s investigation chief Senior Inspector Wilson Tana.

Some of the families living in the building said they have been there for at least 20 years, he added.

Illegal electric connections and someone throwing a Molotov bomb were considered as possible causes of the fire but a witness who lived beside the Agrasadas said the children were indeed playing with matches, said Ricardo Butial, president of the Bahay na Bato Homeowners’ Association, which has control over the building. 

He added that residents never encountered anyone who objected to their occupying the abandoned building.

Barangay officials and certain individuals gave food packs to the displaced families while concerned citizens shouldered the funeral expenses of the six fatalities.