Julius D Mariveles and Roberto Gaquit Jr
BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Jofel Marino, 29, looks like an ordinary girl on ordinary days.
Thin, looking unconcerned with the world, this young mother of three became a woman almost possessed in the crimson-hued darkness of 31 July 2024 – the last day of the month that also signals the start of the tiempo muerto in Sugarlandia and when the strong habagat winds blow.
Faced with a wall of fire around 4am as a massive blaze gutted mostly ramshackle houses in the coastal community where mostly ordinary workers and oddjobers live, Jofel and her common-law husband had no one to to turn to to save their three children.
Except a pail and a washbasin.
Jofel tells DNX they hurriedly placed their two boys, aged one and two, inside a plastic pail while they placed their daughter, an infant three months old, inside a washbasin.
Like the mother of the prophet Moses, they were floated to safety.
“We were able to bring then safely across,” Jofel said referring to a spot outside a petroleum depot.
Their neighbors, on the other hand, have already sought safety at the village plaza.
The local Bureau of Fire reported 75 houses were destroyed while several others were gutted by the blaze.
This city had been hit by two major fires recently, the other in Barangay 16 that led to combined damages valued at around P2 million.
