Forensic pathologist Dr. Fortun weighs in on Valenzuela fire tragedy

 

 

In an interview on Unang Balita, Arnold Clavio discussed with forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun the gruesome task of handling and identifying the bodies of the victims in the recent Valenzuela City factory fire.

 

When asked about her opinion on the temporary burial of some of the bodies, Fortun asked, “Bago ba ilibing, nagkaroon ba ng systematic examination ang bawat katawan?” The main goal at this point is identifying the remains. Though the bodies are badly burnt, a lot of information can still be gleaned from them.

 

“This is your chance to maximize getting information from each of these bodies. That is how you do identification,” Fortun said.

 

DNA matching with relatives is another option authorities are looking at, but while we do have the technology, Fortun stressed that we shouldn’t rely exclusively on DNA matching. Not only does fire damage DNA, the analysis process itself is expensive and takes a long time. Dental identification is an alternative we also have, but the issue with that now is if records exist for the victims.

 

In the end, it’s important that relatives should be given realistic expectations. And unfortunately, one of the possibilities is that there may be unidentified remains.

 

The fire broke out in a slipper factory on Wednesday, May 13 in Barangay Ugong, Valenzuela City. Over 70 people have been confirmed dead as of this writing. — Bea Montenegro/TJD, GMA News