3 members of family killed in village fire

BINMALEY, Pangasinan: Three members of a family, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed in a fire at Barangay Baybay Lopez here shortly before midnight on Thursday, fire and police officials said on Friday.

Cpl. Harold Tavares of the Binmaley Police Station identified the victims through their relatives as Raquel Aquino Perez, 42, her daughter Julie Anne Aquino Perez, 9, and her brother-in-law’s wife Lanie Carolino Perez, 56.

Tavares said the victims were trapped inside a room of their house and were not able to get out because of the fire.

FO1 Denissa Vinluan of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said it took firefighters one hour to extinguish the fire which started in the house of the Perezes at about 11:12 p.m.

Vinluan said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire that took place as the country observes the month of March as the Fire Prevention Month.

Vinluan said fire incidents tend to increase in the month of March when the heat index gets high and the country experiences a dry spell

In his report, Tavares said that a witness identified as Lina Baron Abania, 28, was on her way to the comfort room when she noticed that the kitchen area of the house was on fire.

Vinluan said the BFP immediately responded to the fire, which had spread quickly to two more houses, before it was declared “fire out” at about 12:30 a.m. on March 22.

Vinluan said the owners of the two houses were not hurt.

Tavares said a fourth house owned by Digna Sanchez Morse, a senior citizen, was only “licked by the fire and was slightly burned.”