COTABATO CITY (Monday, August 25, 2025) — Two elderly villagers died in a fire that razed a house in Barangay Sarmiento in the seaside Parang town in Maguindanao del Norte before dawn Monday, August 25.

Local officials and personnel of the Parang Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office told reporters at noon Monday that the fatalities, Antonio Suan, 91, and the 81-year-old Katalina Lopez, were both charred almost beyond recognition.

“They were both incapable of rising from their beds to run away,” Parang Mayor Cahar Ibay told reporters.

Senior Fire Officer 4 Jerry Bacera, in-charge of the Sarmiento Fire Substation, said the house ravaged by fire is located in Purok Highway 2 in Barangay Sarmiento.

Ibay’s office had extended initial relief support to the relatives of Suan and Lopez who were left homeless by the incident.

The mayor also promised to help facilitate the burial of his two constituents.

Photo shows what is left of the house in Purok Highway 2 in Barangay Sarmiento ravaged by fire early Monday.