Meanwhile, the fire in Lahug, Cebu City started at the house of Nina Radan, the caretaker of the widow Anecita Sanchez, SFO1 Nilo Daculan of the Cebu City Fire Department said in his initial report.
Daculan has ruled out electrical short circuit as a cause of the fire as Radan’s house had no electricity.
Radan’s and Sanchez’s houses shared the same wall, Daculan said.
Daculan said that before the fire broke out at 5:49 p.m., Radan left Anecita in her room to go to the cemetery and left her in the care of the widow’s daughter.
But Anecita’s daughter left the house to run an errand at the family-owned barbeque stand.
When the fire broke out, several children, including Radan’s 13-year-old son, managed to run but Anecita was trapped and killed in the fire.
The fire was raised to a second alarm at 6 p.m. It was declared under control 15 minutes later.
PO2 Edario Manatad of the Homicide Section, one of the responding investigators, said Anecita’s body was taken to the nearby Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes.
Damage to property was pegged at P200,000.