8 dead in UP Campus fire

MANILA, Philippines — Eight persons, including three minors, died and at least 250 families were left homeless in a fire that broke out in Barangay UP Campus in Diliman, Quezon City yesterday morning.

In a report, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the blaze started at around 5:20 a.m. At least 80 houses were destroyed.

Arson probers said three of the fatalities were minors aged three to 10. Two of them were identified as siblings Ivy and Aby Lagunoy.

“Hindi po natin makilala ang ibang biktima kasi they were charred beyond recognition,” Senior Inspector Jose Felipe Arreza, commander of the Quezon City fire bureau Station 4, said in an interview on GMA News.

The BFP said it is conducting investigation to validate the victims’ names.

Arreza said six of the fatalities were found inside a house. The others were recovered in another shanty around five meters away.

“Yung anim nag-umpukan doon sa passageway. They were trapped. ‘Yung dalawa doon sa bintana inabot nang until they were suffocated,” he said.

Initial investigation showed that the fire originated in a two-story house owned by Apolinario Almo, who was among the three persons injured.

Almo said he and his other relatives were trapped in the burning house when they woke up.

The fire reached the second alarm before it was put out at around 7 a.m.

Damage to property was estimated at P150,000.

Twenty-four fire trucks and two ambulances responded to the scene.

Philippine Red Cross chairman Sen. Richard Gordon said they dispatched a fire truck with four firefighters and one ambulance with three emergency medical responders.

Gordon said their teams are conducting assessments and would deploy food trucks to provide hot meals to the affected families.

“Napakahalaga ng emergency response unit at medical services sa mga komunidad,” he said in a statement.

The displaced families sought shelter at a covered court in the barangay, the BFP said.