Three children were killed in a fire while their parents were out foraging for food in a remote barangay in Cadiz City Thursday night, Cadiz Vice Mayor Samson Mirhan said yesterday.

The victims were Joshua Makilan, 1, Jay Marie Pelayo, 3, and Frencis Pelayo, 6, of Sitio Aluyan, Barangay Caduhaan, Mirhan said.

The children's parents, Jella Pelayo and Kenneth Makilan, both 30, left 6 p.m. Thursday to search for crabs and shells in a riverfor their dinner.

At about 7 p.m., they saw a fire in the distance and realized it was their house being gutted,prompting them to runhome.

But since their house was made of light materials, like nipa and bamboo, it was destroyed in just five minutes, and they were unable to get to it in time to save their children, Mirhan said.

Their three children may have fallen asleep and were trapped inside the house, Mirhan said.

Mirhan said the fire may have been triggered by embers from a stove in the house that had been blown by the breeze to some combustible material.

The stove was believed to have been left lighted for cooking the rice to go with the seafood the parents had gone out to catch, he added.

Mirhan, who went to the scene of the fire, said the sitio was 12 kilometers from Barangay Caduhaan proper, and part of the way to it, can only be reached by foot.*CPG

back to top