Fire hits residential compound of Satur's in-laws

Fire believed caused by an electrical short circuit hit the residential compound of the in-laws of Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo in Quezon City shortly after midnight Monday. Ocampo's wife Carolina "Bobbie" Malay, retired journalism professor at the University of the Philippines, said Tuesday that the fire apparently emanated from the computer room of their ancestral two-storey house. Radio station dzRH said the fire reached third alarm before firefighters put it out at 2:56 a.m. The fire took place at 15 General de Jesus St., Heroes Hill, Quezon City. Incidentally, Quezon City Rep. Vicent "Bingbong" Crisologo lives right across the Ocampos' home. Antonio Ocampo, the Bayan Muna solon's son, told GMANews.TV that the fire gutted three of four houses inside the compound. Two of these razed structures were rental properties of the Malay family. Satur and Carolina now live in the home of the late great journalist Dean Armando Malay, which was the only building spared in the blaze. Antonio said the fire was most probably electrical in nature that may have been triggered by a flourescent lamp that had been running too long. "The house that was first hit by fire was an original structure from the war. I believe it was one of the last three old houses in the area," Antonio said in Filipino during a phone interview. Doctor Richard Kho, cousin-in-law of Antonio, sustained third-degree burns to feet while trying to save his child inside the old burning house. Antonio said his uncle, his cousins and their tenants are now forced to seek shelter in their relatives' or friends' homes.-GMANews.TV