15 Killed in Cagayan Hotel Fire

Just this early morning, December 19, 2010, past 1 a.m., the Bed and Breakfast Hotel and Restaurant located in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan Valley, Philippines was caught up with fire due to faulty wiring as suspected by investigators.

As reported by fire officials and police, most of the victims are nursing students who came from Santiago City in Isabela who were scheduled to take their license examination CGFNS on December 19 and 20.

There were actually more than 30 nursing graduates who stay in the hotel as what Romeo Opido, an instructor at the University of La Sallete in Santiago City told the police department. Opido also said that at least 27 were able to leave the hotel unhurt when the fire broke out while 12 others were taken to different hospitals in Tuguegarao due to minor burns and for difficulty in breathing.

As of 1:30 p.m., 15 dead bodies were recovered by firefighters, and 9 of them were all male and recent graduates of a nursing school, city police chief Superintendent Pedro Martinez said.

The fatalities—who included a couple and their child, all related to the owner of the hotel—were not identified.

Martinez said, as what the fire investigator told him, that “the fire started in the other building, not the hotel. The blaze apparently started in the shop’s stock room.”