Manila: A three-year-old girl in Central Philippines' Antique province has been drawing the attention of locals for her alleged extraordinary ability to set fire to objects without touching them and to predict fire.
According to reports, police had cordoned off the residence of the three-year-old girl on orders of Mayor Ronie Molina of San Jose town after people came flocking to see the child who — according to the town's executive — has the capability to set fire to objects without touching them.
It is a "one of a kind. A new experience for us. Beyond explanation. I am at a loss," Molina was quoted in an interview by published by the community paper The Daily Guardian.
Molina visited the child after word spread of her ability to set objects on fire without touching them.
The local official was sitting in the receiving room of the child's house when she blurted that something was about to burn.
Unique experience
Sure enough a shirt that had been left in the clothesline outside the house to dry suddenly burst into flames. "Nobody touched it or was even close to it. It just started in seconds. The shirt was on fire," Molina said.
Earlier, news spread in Antique — a province famed for its mysticism-ridden folklore — about the fire-starting child.
The child's father, a motorised-rickshaw driver, recalled the time when he was with her daughter when she told him that something was going to burn at 9am.
The father did not heed his daughter's words but to his surprise, her prediction came true and the spare tyre of his motorcycle burned.
He checked his watch and it was 9am.
Local mystics tried to look for explanations on the mysterious occurrences. Some had said that she has the ability to predict when a fire would happen or possesses occult power while others said that she has "pyrokenesis," or the ability to set objects on fire without touching them.
Whatever the explanation, Molina said he is not taking chances and has put a fire truck on standby close to the child's house.
