MANILA, 28 December 2007 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday ordered local government officials and the police to start enforcing laws on firecrackers and fire safety before another tragedy happens. Arroyo issued the directive two days after a blaze sparked by exploding firecrackers burned a department store in Ormoc City in the central Philippine island of Leyte. Officials said 24 people, including shoppers, vendors and store employees, were killed and 22 others injured in the Christmas Day blaze. Malacañang Palace has told police to conduct a thorough investigation to make sure that those who have neglected to do their jobs would be punished. Chief Superintendent Jose Collado, chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection, said the agency is readying administrative and criminal charges against the management of Unitop General Merchandising Store, located on Real Street in Ormoc. He cited preliminary findings that the store had no permit to sell firecrackers. “They (should) be selling hardware and electronic materials, not firecrackers,” he said. Collado said investigation also revealed the store’s fire exit was padlocked, which prevented the victims from escaping the fire. Responding firefighters said they found inside the store’s bathroom charred bodies of workers, who apparently went there after they were unable to leave through the padlocked exit. The fire started at 4:40 p.m. in a stall selling firecrackers located at the department store’s entrance. Initial investigation said the fire was caused by a “tracer bullet toy gun” fired by a boy that hit a pile of firecrackers sold at the store, Ormoc Police Chief Manuel Cubillo told Agence France-Press. The fire quickly engulfed the front portion of the store, forcing the shoppers to move to the rear exit, which was locked. Earlier report said the store’s management had pledged to shoulder burial and medical expenses of the victims. The management was also reported by local media as saying it was ready to give financial assistance to the families of the fatalities. Wake-Up Call Presidential Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, in a statement yesterday, said President Arroyo has told local officials and the police that the Ormoc fire should serve as a wake-up call for them to ensure that the public remains safe from accidents caused by firecrackers. “President Arroyo is saddened by this incident and wants the PNP (Philippine National Police) to work closely with the LGUs (local government units) to enforce safeguards to prevent such accidents,” Bunye said. “This is a wake-up call for more vigilance against the yearly rise of firecracker-related incidents. We urge the public to heed the warnings of the proper authorities relative to the New Year’s revelry for their own safety and well being,” Bunye said. Negros Occidental In the island of Negros, also in the central Philippines, two more firecracker and pyrotechnics factories have been razed to the ground in a village here following a fire that started in one of the factories, causing damage estimated at P180,000, a police official said. Chief Inspector Rosauro Francisco, Hinigaran police chief, said an explosion was heard at about 1 p.m. Tuesday at the factory of Conrado Juguan in barangay Tagda, Hinigaran, 60 kilometers south of here, causing the fire that spread quickly to the adjacent factory owned by Pablo Enrile. No one was injured, said Francisco. The incident took place more than a month after a pyrotechnics factory in another barangay in Hinigaran exploded, killing one person and causing injuries to another. Francisco said a spark from potassium chlorate, a chemical used in the manufacture of pyrotechnics, had triggered the fire. The residents and responding firefighters contained the fire after 30 minutes. Francisco said Juguan and Enrile were among the licensed manufacturers of pyrotechnics and firecrackers in Hinigaran, the pyrotechnics capital of Negros Occidental province. (With reports by the Inquirer News Service and Agencies) |
