Two fires hit Ormoc, ma and son killed
Ramonito wails as he touches his burnt wife and son. Photo by Obet Dejon
By Roberto C. Dejon and Ronnie Roa
ORMOC CITY – A mother and her child were killed when their house along block 7-Rafi, Tambulilid village was razed to the ground early morning Wednesday.
Deputy city Fire Marshall F/Insp. Concesa Asumbrado, identified the fatalities as Jasmine Diando y Goc-ong, 29, married, and his son 11 months old Argie.
The victim’s husband, Ramonito Diando y Romo, 35, an electronic technician, suffered only minor burns while his three children Angel, 10, Janet, 8 and Hazel 2, were brought and confined to the Ormoc District Hospital for second degree burns.
PCP3 chief P/Insp. Harris Rebato said that initial investigation conducted by his office disclosed that prior to the burning, the wife, who is said to be mentally deranged, brought a gas tank inside their bedroom then cut the hose before lighting it with a lighter.
Ramonito, in an interview said, he was awakened by the yelling of her wife that they would all die (because) of the fire.
He said that when the fire started to raze their room he kicked the burning tank out of their room and then also kicked their wall and rescued his three children who at that time already incurred burns in different part of their bodies as they were still sleeping when the fire broke out.
He added that he then pulled his wife, who was carrying his son, out of their room but she returned to the burning room that resulted to their instantaneous death.
Insp. Rebato said that the couple has been at odds for unknown family problem for the past several days. He added that neighbors of the couple told him that at the vespers night of their fiesta last Dec. 8 she told her friends that she would set their house on fire so that all of them will be killed. He added that one of the neighbors whom the police talked with has told the woman that they will visit an “albularyo” the next day because she was only suffering from relapse. But the victim just ignored it.
Estimated damage to fire was placed at P200, 000.
The two houses after the fire along San Pablo street. Photo by Ronnie Roa
On Sunday, two houses were razed to the ground along San Pablo street at around 9:20 in the morning.
Bureau of Fire Protection investigator SFO1 Restituto D. Ollave said that based on their initial investigation, the fire started at around 9:23 AM at the 2nd floor of Bonav Amo’s residence.
Ollave declared fire out at about 10:30 AM. He estimated the damages for more or less 400,000 pesos and no casualties were reported.
He said that they responded to the fire alarm minutes later but the fire already engulfed the two houses, which were made of light materials.
Joy Semprado a househelp of the Amo’s was still in shock when asked how the fire started. She said that she was doing her laundry when she saw heavy smoke and fire. She immediately took the two kids with her to safety. She also said that they were only three inside the house when the fire broke out.
Nina Amo, about seven years old said that she was watching TV when the incident happened. She was just informed by her younger brother Wavel about the fire.
The house of Roberto Ferrer was also turned to the ground. Only few of their belongings were recovered.
Fire Bureaus from Kananga, Isabel, Albuera and Merida all of nearby towns responded to the fire alarm. Ormoc RESCUE team and ACCESS 5 also gave their support to fire fighters.
