Fire kills family of 4, 2 maids: Arson probers eye foul play

MANILA, Philippines - Two doctors, their two children and their two maids were killed in a fire that police believe was deliberately started before dawn yesterday at their house in Barangay Central, Quezon City.

Neighbors of the Sedilla family were awakened by cries for help coming from the burning house on Marunong street. Moments later, the shouting stopped and there was an explosion from the garage.

By the time firefighters put out the flames at around 4 a.m., they found the bodies of all six members of the household huddled in the master’s bedroom. Firefighters identified them as cardiologist Dr. Elson Sedilla, 50; his wife, Susan, 50, a non-practicing pediatrician; daughters Janina Nicole, 20, and Patricia Ann, 17; and househelpers Lenlen de Leon, 27, and Anna de Leon, 30.

Police Officer 3 Venirando Trago, who was among those who went upstairs when the flames were put out, said some of the victims were in an embrace while one of them was on top of another, in an apparent attempt to shield the one beneath.

Neighbor Mila Anige, who lives across the street, said she heard a female voice shouting for help.

“It lasted for just a few seconds. Then the voice faded. Then there was an explosion,” Anige said in Filipino.

The sound of what seemed to be an explosion came from a Hyundai Starex van parked in the family’s garage. Arson investigators believe the van was the source of the fire that enveloped the entire house.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Fortunato Alde said the fire broke out at around 2:55 a.m. and reached third alarm before the fire was placed under control at 3:26 a.m.

Arson investigators are looking into the possibility of foul play since the cover of the gas tank of the Starex van was opened and the steel cap missing. This was also the case with an Isuzu Trooper parked in the garage.

Elson’s cousin, Manny de los Santos, who drives for the two daughters, doubts that the cause of the fire was faulty electrical wiring in the van. He said both vehicles are relatively new – the van is a 2005 model, while the Trooper is a 2002 model – and are regularly brought to auto repair shops for checkups.

De los Santos said he did not go to the house yesterday.

Investigators found that the gate’s padlock was not locked and hanging on an elevated grill after the fire. Members of the household could not have gone down the stairs to escape the flames since it was the ground floor that was first to burn. The windows on the second floor had steel grills. There was also no exit at the back of the house.

There were three doors on the ground floor, but all these lead to the main gate. Of the two vehicles that were lined up along the garage, it was the Starex van – the source of the flames – that was near the gate.

The other side of the duplex, which the Sedillas were renting out but presently unoccupied, was damaged by the flames. De los Santos said the Sedilla couple bought the duplex in the late 1990s.

De los Santos could not think of anyone who may have an axe to grind against the Sedillas. He noted that the couple were kind, sending his own children to school and helping out other scholars.