Family in Muntinlupa fire tragedy had just returned from Simbang Gabi, was preparing meal

The family killed in a house fire in Barangay Putatan, Muntinlupa over the weekend had just come home from attending Simbang Gabi and were preparing breakfast when their lives were cut short, preliminary investigations by the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) showed.

In Mark Salazar's report on 24 Oras Weekend on Sunday, Muntinlupa City Fire Superintendent Eugene Briones said that they found vegetables being prepared on the kitchen counter in the house of the Ladia family.

The fire broke out at 8:56 a.m., reached the first alarm at 9:02 a.m., was placed under control at 9:25 a.m., and was declared a fire out at 10:25 a.m. The cost of damage was initially estimated at P500,000.

The casualties were grandparents Claire Ladia, 65, and Virgilio Ladia, 68, and the families of their two children including Mark Gil (39), Cherry (19), Jerome (19), Leandro Jose (15), Emmanuel (12), Cherise Angela (5 months), Ana (33), and Amatheus (16).

The family matriarch, great-grandmother Virginia Caoili, 83, was the sole survivor.

The bundled-up body of Cherise Angela was carried out of the house by an emotional family member, and brought to the service vehicle which would carry the family members to the funeral home.

Briones said some of the family members were trying to exit the residence when the fire broke out, with initial investigations pointing to asphyxia as the cause of death. Autopsies are set to be carried out.

“‘Yung nakita natin na ‘yung isang pamilya sa second floor, may mga sugat sugat pa siya sa katawan. Ibig sabihin nag-attempt sila na makalabas, nataon na naka-grills ‘yung mga bintana nila,” he said in a report on GMA’s “24 Oras Weekend” on Sunday.

(We saw that one of the family members on the second floor had wounds in the body, indicating signs of an attempt to exit but it so happened that there were grills on their windows.)

The BFP is still trying to determine the cause of the fire, and is trying to salvage CCTV recordings. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA Integrated News