Old woman falls to her death from burning condo

A burning sofa caused a 71-year-old woman to panic and fall to her death while trying to escape from her condominium unit in Makati City early yesterday morning.

Authorities identified the victim as Felicisima Uytengsu, of Eurovilla I Condominium located at Legaspi street, Legaspi Village.

Uytengsu’s twisted body was discovered by a security guard and a firefighter lying on a concrete partition on the second floor of the building minutes after a fire-out was declared, said Superintendent Arseno Tabajonda, chief of the Makati Fire Station.

Investigation showed the fire started at around 2:20 a.m. at the condominium’s Unit 503-B occupied by one Yong In Yong, a Korean national.

Yong’s housemaid, Alma Subingsubing, 27, told investigators that she saw one of the sofa beds on fire and that she and her employer tried to put it out.

But Tabajonda said that because the sofa was made of foam, the fire produced thick smoke that filled the unit and the entire hallway.

Uytengsu, whose unit was just across Yong’s, apparently panicked.

The old woman tied a blanket to the balcony and tried to slide down but had miscalculated its length.

She fell on a GI sheet canopy of an airconditioning unit at the fourth floor and landed on a concrete portion of the second floor.

Tabajonda said a security guard told arson investigators that he heard a woman screaming for help because the building was on fire and that they suddenly stopped.

The fire chief presumed that it was Uytengsu screaming while hanging onto the blanket.

Tabajonda said authorities later learned that Uytengsu, who was reportedly alone in her unit, was even able to call up her relatives for help before she probably thought of getting herself out of the building.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire.

But Tabajonda said their initial theories were either somebody had left a lit cigarette on it or the wiring of a worn electric fan cord near the sofa had sparked.

Aside from the sofa, nothing else in the Korean’s unit was burned. A fire-out was declared at 3:25 a.m., Tabajonda said.