A three-hour fire killed three people before dawn in Manila while another damaged the National College of Business and Arts (NCBA) building in Quezon City before noon Saturday.

A residential area in Bacood, Sta. Mesa, Manila, went up in flames and left three residents dead: Belinda Dinisio, 57, Lilia Aguilar, 68, and Bernadette Aguilar ,50, according to the city’s fire department.

FO2 Lourds De Vera said the victims’ bodies were all recovered from ruins of a two-story house where the fire was believed to have started around 1:20 a.m.

The fire of still undetermined cause reached the fourth alarm and destroyed some P2 million worth of property.

Belinda’s husband, Leopoldo had to rushed to the hospital for hypertension, De Vera said.

In Quezon City, another fire hit the five-story building of the NCBA on Aurora Boulevard, Cubao, around 11 a.m.

No one was reported injured as firemen declared the fire out after an hour. Damage was estimated at P5 million.

Deputy city fire marshal Supt. Samuel Tadeo said the fire started on the fifth floor of the building housing the elementary and high school, spreading to several classrooms and the maintenance room. Nancy C. Carvajal, Julie M. Aurelio