Mother, son killed in Bulacan blast

STA. MARIA, Bulacan – Tragedy marred this town’s fiesta celebration yesterday morning when an acetylene tank exploded, killing a 10-year-old boy and his mother.

Superintendent Efren Ramos, this town’s police chief, said the victims, Rosalinda de Guzman, 30, and her son, Jon Jericho, were walking in front of a gas store in Barangay Bagbaguin when an acetylene tank left by its workers exploded. 

The blast was so strong that it severed the boy’s head and left arm, and his mother, one of her arms.

Police were still trying to determine the cause of the explosion, but the owner of the Christian Gas Dealer claimed that an Elf truck accidentally bumped the tank. But the truck driver denied this. – Dino Balabo