A 79-year-old man was accidentally burned to death amid dried leaves and garbage which he set afire at his backyard in a remote village in Ubay on Tuesday morning.

PO1 Randy Tutor of the Ubay Police Station identified the victim as Hilario Bacalso, a resident of Barangay Sinandigan, Ubay.

According to Tutor, 90 percent of Bacalso’s body was burned based on examination made by a physician.

Authorities believe that Bacalso suffocated and accidentally fell down on the burning pile of leaves and garbage.

Prior to the incident, Bacalso was clearing his backyard of garbage and dead leaves with his wife Anesia, 78.

They were supposed to use the lot for gardening, Tutor said.

However, Anesia went home ahead of Hilario, but the latter never made it back inside their house.

She initially thought that Hilario left the house.

However, as dusk came, Hilario was still not home prompting Anesia to ask help from neighbors to search for her husband.

Anesia and her neighbors found Hilario’s burned body at 8 p.m. on the same day.

According to Tutor, neighbors were likely not able to notice Hilario as he was burning as houses in the village are far from each other. (ad)