Boarding house blaze kills one

One person was killed in a fire that hit a two-story boarding house in Quezon City yesterday early morning.

The fatality was identified as Arielo Labertos, 28, who was apparently trapped inside his room on the second floor of the boarding house, located at 65 J. P. Rizal Street, in Barangay Marilag, where the fire started.

Chief Inspector Ricardo Clemence of the Quezon City Hall fire department said the fire started at the duplex-type boarding house owned by retired Colonel Rodrigo Jocson around 2:44 a.m. Clemence said the fire spread rapidly towards the next house owned by Jocson’s sister-in-law Norma Labertos.

Arson investigators said the neighbors saw the second floor of the boarding house already on fire when they called on boarders to leave. However, the neighbors said, they got no response.

They learned later that Labertos, a nephew of Norma, was the only person left in the boarding house as his boardmates were out attending a Christmas party.

A fire-out was declared at 4:03 a.m. Arson investigators have yet to determine the cause of fire and the estimated value of damage to property.

Meantime, more than P200 million worth of products went up in smoke in a fire that hit a warehouse in Santiago Street, San Francisco Del Monte, Quezon City the other day.

The fire at the three-story warehouse, belonging to Cleveland Industrial Inc. and owned by businessman Ando Sy, started around 3:55 p.m. on Monday.

Arson investigators said the fire started at the driveway of the warehouse where one of the employees left a lighted gas stove unattended. Highly flammable materials, such as chemicals, rubber and textiles, were stored inside the warehouse, fire investigators said.

The fire was put under control at 9:45 p.m. Monday but a fire-out was declared only yesterday around 8:05 a.m. — Pia Lee-Brago