Pasig fire kills baby; 2 hurt

A one-year-old girl was killed and her two older siblings were injured when a fire razed their shanty in Pasig City Friday night.

The body of Kyle Mendoza was charred beyond recognition while her siblings Sheena, 2, and John Christian, 3, suffered burns on the arms and body.

Investigation showed that the victims were left on their own in their house on Ortigas Avenue extension, Barangay Rosario, Pasig City, when the fire broke out at around 8:15 p.m. Friday.

The victim’s mother Sheila reportedly went to relieve her husband Michael who was selling cigarettes outside Ever Gotesco Shopping Mall in Cainta, Rizal.

Fire probers said arson may be involved as the victims’ brother, Bret Allan, 5, claimed that he saw Angelito Manalo, 38, setting their house in fire.

According to the boy, Manalo entered their house and took their lighted candle. The shanty had no electrical connections.

The boy alleged that Manalo then took their clothes and set them aflame. He managed to save his two injured siblings but the fire immediately spread to two other shanties.

The victim’s father, Michael, said that Manalo could have been seeking revenge because he had caught him stealing metal from a construction site last February. The father reportedly tipped off the police about Manalo.

Meanwhile, arson probers are now looking into the cause of the fire that razed the Quezon City Hall of Justice yesterday morning.

Investigators said no one was reported injured in the blaze that broke out at around 10:05 a.m. while a number of construction workers were doing overtime work at the second floor of the justice building. The fire was contained an hour later.

Quezon City Fire Marshal Chief Inspector Ricardo Lamense said documents at the offices of Regional Trial Court Judges Diosdado Peralta of Branch 95 and Lucas Bersamin of Branch 96 were totally destroyed.

Lamense noted that the blaze also spread to the portion of the third and fourth floors of the building but timely arrival of firefighters from Quezon City and its neighboring cities prevented the fire from spreading further.

Building security officer Danilo Ronillo said he was with other security guards at the ground floor when they saw thick smoke billowing from the windows of the second floor. He theorized the fire could have started inside the justice lounge were renovation work was being done. – Sheila Crisostomo and Cecille Suerte Felipe