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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider Elderly sisters perish in Leyte home fire

Elderly sisters perish in Leyte home fire

Published Jan 30, 2021 11:52 am

TACLOBAN CITY - Two elderly siblings perished in a fire that gutted their house on Thursday night, January 28, in Sitio Utap, Barangay Matlang in Isabel, Leyte.

(Photo by Isabel Police / MANILA BULLETIN)
Two elderly siblings perished in a fire that gutted their house on Thursday night, January 28, in Sitio Utap, Barangay Matlang in Isabel, Leyte. (Photo by Isabel Police / MANILA BULLETIN)

Isabel Fire Marshall SFO4 Cosmelito Tante, on Saturday, January 30, identified the fatalities as Estrelita Centino, 88, widow, and her sister Conegunda Wenceslao, 78, widow.

Case investigator FO3 Kenneth Ian Villaflor disclosed that the local fire bureau was still conducting a thorough investigation on the cause of the fire that reduced the house of the elderly sisters into rubble. 

He said that the siblings have been living together in the house owned by their mother Alfreda Roble Ramas since she died several years ago. 

The siblings, according to Villaflor, preferred to stay in their mother’s house after both of them became widows because they loved to spend their mornings planting vegetables to earn a living.

Villaflor surmised that because of their old age, they could not have found the strength to get out of the house when fire broke out at around 11 p.m.

He said the house, which was made of light materials, was already totally burned when they arrived.

Villaflor added that a kin of the siblings suspected that a kerosene lamp could have caused the fire.

The damage of the fire was estimated at P50,000. The bodies of the siblings were brought to a local funeral parlor.

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