Naga Boarding House Blaze Claims Two

NAGA CITY (4 Aug) -- A FIRE that gutted a two-storey wooden boarding house in No. 12 Santiago 1, St. at Barangay Peñafrancia here killed two women and hurt three others during the early dawn of Tuesday (Aug.3).

Naga City Fire Marshall, Chief Insp. Achilles M. Santiago, told VOX BIKOL that the two women victims, an elderly woman identified as Aida Canuto Ausen, 68, a native of Pili Camarines Sur and Cristina Reis, 19, a midwifery student of Camarines Sur Community College were trapped in their rooms at the second floor of the house during the height of the blaze.

Santiago said that initial investigation of the fire revealed that one of the tenants, an elderly woman, used candles on her evening prayers that could have been left lighted in her room.

Boarding house caretaker, Mercy Gaston Vera, said the fire started at 1:50 AM but Santiago said they received the fire call at about 2:30 AM.

Reportedly, other tenants tried to save Ausen and Reis from their rooms but the fire spread quickly in the entirety of the wooden building.

Fire fighters noted that charred bodies of the victims fell from the burning floor of the upper portion of the house and were later recovered by firemen.

Three other tenants also sustained injuries from the blaze, a certain Geraldline, and couple Jefferson Gomez, 24, and his wife, were all treated for fire burns at a local hospital

Santiago said the Gaston boarding house was packed with 10 occupants, a family with four members, a couple, an elderly woman, and the rest were students.

The Gaston house reportedly built in 1964 was totally gutted by the blaze, including an adjacent house which was partially damaged by the fire that was extinguished by fire fighters at 2:45 AM.

The City Fire Marshall reported that there were already six fires that occurred in this city since January this year.