BACOLOD CITY, Philippines - Heroism knows no age. Virginia Rojo is proof of that. She is just 6 years old.

Virginia became the toast of her barangay in Sipalay City in Negros Occidental when, at dusk on Sunday, she used her body as a shield to save her four-month-old baby brother from a fire that destroyed their tiny home.

Now, she seemed bewildered by all the fuss around her.

Despite the severe burns she suffered, Virginia said it wasn't she alone that delivered her brother from the flames - "Papa Jesus" was with her, too, she said.

The fire left her with second-degree burns on the upper part of her face and on her tiny hands.

For now, her biggest concern is how to endure the constant pain from the burns, according to her mother Lorna, a laundrywoman and a single parent whose husband abandoned her and their three children last year.

Jesus said: 'Wake up'

That Sunday Lorna, who is a also a house help, had gone out to work with her other daughter, aged 9. She had left Virginia to care for her baby brother, who was sleeping in an aboy-aboy (makeshift crib), in the family's wooden shack in Barangay San Jose.

Virginia, who had fallen asleep beside the crib, woke at around 9 p.m. with their house on fire.

"Jesus told me to wake up and save my baby brother," Virginia said. By then, the "fire was eating up our house" and had also begun to scorch her head, she said.

"I rushed to get my brother. I hugged him so he would not feel the heat," she added.

Baby unharmed

Virginia's account of the fire was given to the Inquirer by her mother in a phone interview Friday arranged by barangay councilman Jose Canillo.

Lorna said her daughter dodged the flames as she rushed out of the house, still shielding her brother with her body.

"It was very hot and I did not notice that I had already caught fire myself," Virginia told her mother.

Virginia's hands, face, nose and the area around her eyes were badly burned. Her brother was unharmed.

A miracle

Lorna, 39, said that at about 5 p.m. that day she and her daughter Marissa went out to deliver laundry to a neighbor about 400 meters away. From there, she went to see another neighbor who had promised to give her clothes for her children.

On the way home, Lorna said, "I heard screams that our house was on fire."

She said she ran towards home, sobbing, then tried to rush into the house to save her two children. Neighbors pulled her back and told her they were alive.

She said she never thought they would survive the fire on their own. She said Virginia told her that "Papa Jesus" woke her up.

"I don't know how to explain it. It was a miracle," Lorna said.

She said she did not know what caused the fire.

Cigarette butt

Canillo said the police were looking into the possibility that the fire was caused by a lighted cigarette butt thrown carelessly towards the direction of the house of the Rojos.

Officials said the house could have easily caught fire because it was made of light materials. Another possible factor was the searing heat due to the drought brought on by the El Nino weather phenomenon, they said.

Virginia is staying for now at the Sipalay Infirmary so her burns would not get infected.

"I don't know where we will go when we leave this place. We have no more home," Lorna said. "We need help, we have nothing left."

Baby in her arms

At the infirmary, Virginia still cradled her baby brother in her arms despite her discomfort. Neighbors came with contributions of food for the girl they called a hero.

"They need the help of kindhearted people now to rebuild their house," Canillo said.

Gov. Isidro Zayco said the provincial health office would look into the medical needs of Lorna's children.

-Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network