Three children died in a nearly three-hour fire at a residential area in Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City on Saturday.

In a phone interview with the Daily Manila Shimbun, Cebu City Fire Station Senior Fire Officer 2 Wendell Villanueva said that the fire began at 8:51 am, raised to first alarm at 8:53 am, before it was declared fire out at 11:01 am.

The remains of the siblings, aged six, four, and three, were found hugging each other when they were recovered from the burnt-down house, the report said.

"We're looking at two angles right now. Allegedly the children were playing with matchsticks, but we're also looking at the angle of a butane explosion," Villanueva said.

Initial investigation showed that the fire began in a two-storey house occupied by the family of the three children among several other persons.

The children were alone when the fire started, with their mother at work and their father out to get his e-bike, said Villanueva,

The ground floor residents of the two-storey house were not in the premises.

Neighbors had shouted for the children to jump from the second floor, but the children were unresponsive.

Firemen believe that the children were suffocated by smoke.

Twenty houses were totally burned, while five were partially burned.

A 41-year-old man was injured, sustaining a contusion in his right torso.

Damage to property was estimated at P750,000. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS