Firecracker blast kills 3 in General Santos

GENERAL SANTOS CITY , Philippines  – Three people were killed in a fire that gutted 15 stores selling pyrotechnics at the Oval Plaza here shortly before dawn yesterday as Christendom was celebrating Christmas.

The bodies of two victims, maimed and burned beyond recognition, were found in one of the stores just a few meters from the Bureau of Fire Protection along Pendatun Avenue.

They were later identified as Marivic Castillo, 25, and April Reyson Arangat, 23.

Store helper Arlene Arnaiz, 28, of Barangay Fatima, lost one leg and sustained third-degree burns in the fire, which broke out at 12:30 a.m.

She was taken to a nearby hospital but died moments later while undergoing surgery.

Witnesses told arson investigators that the fire started in the middle of the fireworks display center that City Hall had set up for the Yuletide revelry amid the zero-accident campaign of the Department of Health (DOH) to minimize, if not totally avoid, pyrotechnics injuries.

Several other establishments were also damaged in a series of loud explosions that followed the blaze.

Shards of windowpanes and jalousies lay strewn in front of some of the offices in the immediate vicinity of the explosions, which sent shock waves through several blocks.

Pandemonium broke out as people scampered to safety and pyrotechnics lit up the midnight sky for at least 15 minutes.

Carlos Uy, a tricycle driver, said he saw a man launch a “baby rocket” or kwitis bought from one of the stores in the Muslim section, usually suspected of trading banned firecrackers.

“Unfortunately, the rocket went awry and fell on top of a heap of pyrotechnic materials, triggering a blaze which quickly spread. In a matter of seconds, the entire block was on fire,” Uy said in Cebuano.

Another witness said the man was testing the rocket to see if it was up to speed. But the storeowners had earlier been told in a seminar on fire safety to conduct such tests in an open space 50 meters from their establishments.

Liezel Lu, a sales supervisor of one of the stores, said that at any given time each of the stores contained at least 5,000 rockets and thousands more “fountains” and various other types of sparklers worth at least P150,000, or P2.25 million.

However, authorities have yet to determine the actual damage to property as well as the cause of the fire. They were quick, though, to rule out the possibility of terrorists.

On Christmas Eve the City District Hospital reported having treated a 28-year-old man for a slight gunshot wound.

Edralin Nacario, of Adroles Street in Barangay Lagao, later told police a stray bullet dropped through the roof of their house and grazed his right side as he and his family were sleeping a couple of hours before Christmas.

Zero casualties in Davao

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte ordered the arrest of those found violating the city’s firecracker ban, which will be in effect even during the Chinese New Year celebration in February.

The ban has been imposed in Davao City for at least eight years now and has been implemented without letup, resulting in the detention of hundreds of violators.

According to Dr. Ricky Audan of the Davao Medical Center, no one was brought to the hospital’s emergency room for any firecracker injury.

“We had no such cases during last Christmas eve. We had zero-injury,” Audan said.

The same was true for the other hospitals in the city.

Records at the city’s Central 911 emergency response center showed that the calls received on Christmas eve were not for emergency cases but rather reports of concerned citizens on violations of the firecracker ban.

Warning on torotot

A government doctor in Dagupan City in Pangasinan advised parents to keep a close watch on their children using torotot (paper horn) to welcome the New Year.

Dr. Michael Canto, spokesman of the government-owned Region 1 Medical Center (RIMC) in Dagupan, told The STAR yesterday that two children were hospitalized last year after they swallowed the whistle of the paper horns.

While torotot is believed to be safer and cheaper to use in the New Year revelry, it is important for parents and elders to check on the quality of the items they buy, according to Canto.

He said buyers must also be wary of people who test the torotot before purchase because they might be afflicted with hepatitis-A.

He said the safest thing is to just bang tin cans or basins, pails, and kitchenware, among others, to make noise and welcome the New Year.

Code White Alert

Meanwhile, the DOH has added to its record 12 more revelers injured from firecrackers on Christmas eve as it placed all hospitals under Code White Alert.

This brings to 23 the total number of fireworks-related injuries monitored by the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center (NEC) since Dec. 22. There were no new cases of stray bullet injuries.

In a report, the NEC noted that this figure is 10 cases lower than last year’s and “12 cases lower than three-year daily average cumulative cases (2006-2008).”

“Of the 23 reported injuries, 21 were males, ages ranged from one to 38 years. Seven cases were children less than 10 years old and 14 were active users,” the NEC added.

The DOH had asked parents not to allow their children to play with the seemingly harmless Piccolo, which accounts for 53 percent of the cases. Piccolo is a type of firecracker that is ignited by scratching against the box.

In anticipation of the injuries from firecrackers and stray bullets this Yuletide season, the DOH has placed all of its 72 hospitals under Code White Alert on Dec. 24, 25 and 31 and Jan. 1. – With Eva Visperas, Edith Regalado, Rose Tamayo-Tesoro and Sheila Crisostomo