Woman killed in blaze; mother, daughter survive

By Jennifer P. Rendon

A 29-year-old woman died in another fire incident that struck Iloilo City.

The victim, Domi Rose Duran, got trapped in their two-story concrete house at Sta. Rosa Subdivision in Barangay Tagbak, Jaro district, when the fire started 1:43 a.m. of Feb 23, 2022.

Domi Rose apparently got suffocated and eventually lost consciousness before rescuers reached her.

Personnel from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) managed to rescue Domi Rose’s mother, 61-year-old Rosemarie Duran, and her 1-year-old year daughter.

It took more than 10 minutes for BFP personnel to break through the room where Domi Rose was trapped.

Firemen noted that the iron grills in the window may have prevented her from escaping.

The victim was unresponsive when fire fighters retrieved her from the burning house.

Domi Rose was taken to the Metro Iloilo Hospital and Medical Center but she did not pull through.

The fire was quelled around 3:39 a.m. It partially damaged Durana’s house with an estimated P971,000 in property turned to ashes.

Initial investigation showed that the fire originated from the house’s ground floor. It did not spread to adjacent houses because of the fire wall.

It was only on Thursday when the BFP reminded the public to always be aware of any fire hazards in their houses.

Fire Senior Superintendent Jerry Candido, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)-6 regional director, made the recommendation after three fire incidents happened in Iloilo City in a span of four hours.

But unlike Wednesday’s fire, there was no fatality in Tuesday’s conflagrations.

BFP has earlier claimed that around 80 percent of recent fire incidents in Western Visayas are electrical in nature.