Fire razes boarding house near Mendiola

An overheating electric fan reportedly caused a fire that razed a two-story boarding house in Mendiola near the Malacañang compound in Manila before dawn on Thursday. A report on dzBB radio said no one was reported injured in the fire along Concepcion Aguila Street near Mendiola in Manila. Manila fire marshal Superintendent Marcos Valen said the fire started at the second floor of the boarding house and spread to the computer shop downstairs. The investigation showed that the fire started at 2:35 a.m. and reached the fifth alarm before firefighters put it out at 3:07 a.m. A separate report on "Unang Hirit" said arson investigators estimated the damage to property at P500,000. A resident, Esperanza Asuncion, said they were lucky to escape from the burning house, even as she said there was no time to save their belongings. "Kung hindi kami bumaba kaagad baka nasunog kami (If we did not get down quickly we would have been trapped)," she said. – VVP, GMA News