URDANETA CITY – A young mother and her two-year old son were charred beyond recognition in a fire of suspicious origin that gutted their home in barangay Ultama here at dawn recently.
Chief Inspector Ernesto Gandia, fire marshal of Urdaneta City identified the fatalities as Analyn Talbo, 25, and her two-year old son Charlie.

The house was already completely razed when firemen arrived at the scene.

Gandia told newsmen that Talbo’s husband, Richard, was out of the house when the fire broke out.

He hinted at a possible foul play in that blaze because when he saw the victims, they were merely lying side by side in their bed inside the room.

The usual tendency of victims in case they are trapped in a fire is they exert efforts to get out of the room or if death is already inevitable, they would merely hug each other.

Gandia said if the victims were not already dead before the fire, they could have easily gotten out of their house as the windows had no iron grill.

Their house, made of light materials, was located in the middle of a mango plantation and a distance away from their neighbors.

Foul play was also the suspicion of other residents of Ultama who told the police that prior to the blaze, the Talbo couple had a quarrel.

Supt. Paquito Navarete, chief of police of Urdaneta, said that based on photos taken of the victims, it looked like they were really dead or unconscious before the fire broke out. He requested for an autopsy on the charred bodies and already placed Talbo’s husband, Richard, under police custody.

Navarete said Richard told him that he left their house for work at 8 a.m. Wednesday and did not go home after work because he saw his relatives in one barangay and after that, slept at the city plaza just in front of the establishment he was working.