15 dead in Cagayan fire

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines  – A fire rapidly swept through a lodging house here early yesterday, leaving at least 15 people dead and 14 others injured.

Officials said most of the victims were crammed in bathrooms where they fled in panic as the fire broke out. Many of the victims were about to take the nursing licensure examinations scheduled for yesterday and today.

City police director Pedro Martirez said nine nursing graduates were among those who perished in the fire that broke out at the five-story Bed and Breakfast Pension House at 1 a.m. yesterday.

The children and grandchildren of couple Pete and Arased Fondevilla, along with their maid, also died in the five-hour blaze, authorities said.

The Fondevilla couple, who owned the hotel, survived the fire along with 14 others who were treated for injuries and burns at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center and People’s General Hospital.

Officials identified the nine nursing graduates as Jerome Saet, Frances Caranbas, Nelmar Galapia, Marlon Viernes, Ryan James Malaki, Richard Alan Gonzales, Ronwaldo Respicio, Narl Gensan Lopez and Henderson Welle Lodevico, all from University of La Sallete, a Catholic-run institution in Santiago City, Isabela.

The Fondevilla couple’s children and grandchildren who perished in the fire were identified as Norman, Anibel, Mildred de Leon, Karil de Leon and John de Leon and their maid identified only as a certain Jen.

Regional police spokesman Superintendent Danilo Acosta said the nine nursing graduates were among the 41 students who were billeted at the hotel for the licensure examinations.

The students who survived the fire went on to take the exams yesterday, with one of them showing up in slippers and sleeping clothes.

Relatives grieved at a morgue where the remains of the victims, 14 of them burned beyond recognition, were brought. Some fainted as body bags were brought into a funeral parlor.

“Their families spent fortunes to send these children to school only to see them end that way,” fire investigator Daniel Abana said.

Some firefighters, moved by the sight of the badly burned bodies on the upper floors of the five-story hotel, were moved to tears and prayed before retrieving the remains, Abana said.

Aileen Gonzales, an aunt of one of the students believed to have perished in the fire, said what happened was a twin disaster because her nephew died just days before Christmas and her family was hoping he would pass the nursing exams and work abroad.

Police said the initial investigation had revealed the fire started on the ground floor, apparently fueled by car tires and other combustible materials stored in an auto supply and motorcycle shop at the corner of Luna and Mabini Streets here.

Abana said paint cans also might have been stored in the hotel, which was recently renovated.

Dozens of guests, roused by the commotion, were rescued by firefighters and police out of the still-smoldering building through the main gate and fire escapes.

Some managed to escape on their own but others may have panicked and got trapped by the flames, Cagayan provincial police director Superintendent Mao Aplasca added.

Many of the dead had crammed in bathrooms on the top two floors.

One victim had a foot stuck out of a window in a desperate attempt to survive, Abana said.

Police blamed the building’s inadequate fire alarm system, fire extinguishers and fire escape as windows of the hotel rooms were secured with iron grills.

Witnesses said the victims were screaming and crying for help from the hotel’s windows, which were secured with iron grills.

There were also reports that the fire exit doors were jammed, triggering panic among the hotel occupants.

Residents here claimed the first fire truck responded more than an hour after the fire started.

‘The victims were crying out for help, they could not get out because of the steel grills in the windows. The fire trucks also came too late,” one resident said.

One of the survivors, Dondi Viernes, said he noticed the lights of the hotel began blinking hours before the fire broke out.

Arson investigators said faulty electrical wiring at the hotel could have triggered the fire. - With Cecille Suerte Felipe, AP