Boy, teenage sis killed in Pasig fire

A one-and-a-half hour fire hit a two-story apartment yesterday, killing a four-year-old child and his teenage half-sister in Pasig City.

Arson investigators said the bodies of Mathew Magnaye and his half-sister, Maryjo Roxas, 18, were found at the second floor of the apartment on Moscow street in Greenpark Subdivision, Barangay Manggahan.

“We found them with their arms around one another. Their bodies were so charred, we could no longer recognize them,” said FO2 Salvador Norberte, arson investigator of the Pasig Fire Department.

Norberte said fire started at about 7:10 a.m. inside the victim’s rented apartment.

Neighbors said they heard a loud explosion at the ground floor of the apartment just before the fire broke out.

Initial investigation showed that the victims’ father, badminton coach Ronald Magnaye, left his children sleeping at the second floor of their apartment as he escorted his wife, Raquelle, to work.

“I accompanied my wife to a school nearby. It’s not even 15 minutes away,” Norberte quoted Ronald as saying.

When he returned and found their apartment on fire, Ronald rushed into the house to rescue the children but failed to get through the fire.

Norberte believes the children may have panicked and did not know what to do when they saw the fire. Strong winds fanned the flames, which quickly spread throughout the apartment but did not spread to other units. He added that the apartment was equipped with fire exits. Responding firefighters declared the fire under control at 8:35 a.m.

He said they are still investigating the cause of the fire.

Their initial theory, however, is that an electrical short circuit or overheated appliance could have started the fire. Norberte said they learned from neighbors that the victims’ television set was left on overnight.

Meanwhile, tension gripped tenants at the high-rise Atlanta Center building along Annapolis street in Greenhills, San Juan City when they noticed smoke coming from the building’s seventh floor at around 6 a.m.

Chief Inspector Edwin Co, San Juan City fire chief, said the fire started at one of the office units on the seventh floor.

Prior to the fire, some tenants reported hearing a loud explosion on the seventh floor, followed by smoke billowing out of the unit.

Fire investigators are still investigating the cause of the fire.