Manila Pavilion Hotel fire death toll rises to 5

MANILA, Philippines — A casino employee has claimed that the fire that gutted a portion of the Waterfront Manila Pavilion Hotel along UN Avenue in Ermita, Manila last Sunday started at the ceiling of the slot machine area then spread to adjacent rooms, killing five people.

Romeo Ocampo, one of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) employees monitoring the closed circuit television camera on the 4th floor, said he saw smoke coming out of the ceiling in the slot machine area at about 9:58 a.m.

Ocampo told The STAR yesterday that they saw through the CCTV that the casino slot machine staff were trying to put out the smoke using a fire extinguisher.

He told Joe Cris Banang, another CCTV operator, to call Pagcor main office and report the fire and signal fire alarm in area 1 at around 10 a.m. 

Ocampo said power failure followed seconds later and all the CCTV cameras in the casino went blank.

He said Banang told him that he was going to go down to check the situation at the casino.

Ocampo said he volunteered to check the casino downstairs, so Banang and another co-worker, John Mark Subido, were left in the monitoring room.

Banang, Subido, treasury officer Edilberto Evangelista, assistant treasury officer Marilyn Omadto and security intern Billy de Castro were the five fatalities in the hotel fire that lasted for at least 25 hours.

Banang’s body was recovered inside the CCTV room clutching the digital video recorder that recorded the whole incident.

Jennilyn Figueroa, a nurse reliever, is still in critical condition at the Manila Doctors Hospital.

Ocampo said after leaving the CCTV room he walked through the dark hallway, where the stench of burning materials was intolerable. He used his cellphone to light his way as he stumbled towards a door.

“Thick black smoke crept inside the hallway when I tried to open a door near the comfort room so I closed it and tried to find another way out. It took me at least 15 minutes to get out of the hotel,” Ocampo said.

A survivor, who refused to be identified, said he and a colleague were knocking on the treasury office door urging Evangelista, Omadto and De Castro to get out, but the trio said they would have to finish putting the money and the chips in the vault.

They did not make it out.

Pagcor assistant vice president for corporate communications Carmelita Valdez said the fatalities might have been trapped “saving the properties of Pagcor because the protocol were all followed to the letter.”

“They were not supposed to be there. Life is more important than money. They should have tried to escape but they waited until the last moment,” said assistant vice president for entertainment Jimmy Bondoc.

Trapped

As the fire spread to the upper levels of the building, Manila City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council director Johnny Yu said at least 20 hotel guests were still trapped on the fifth floor but they were communicating with rescuers.

Waterfront corporate planning director Maria Soccoro Cotelo said the guests were later led to the top floor and were evacuated by helicopter.

“All of our guests and employees are accounted for and we are cooperating with arson investigators. The management will see to it that the families of those affected are taken care of,” she said.

Pagcor and hotel management assured the public that the result of the investigation will be transparent and they will hold accountable anyone responsible for the fire. 

Fire Supt. Jonas Silvano, BFP district fire marshal, said mopping up operations were conducted in the whole building.

The hotel management called for sobriety amidst “unverified news reports,” which the media gathered from sources on the ground.

They denied that the fire started at the casino’s second floor, that the welding works in the renovation site triggered the fire and that the facility’s sprinkler system did not function at the height of the fire, among others.

Labor Undersecretary Jacinto Paras yesterday called on concerned DOLE offices to investigate the cause of the fire and determine if the hotel violated labor regulations, including occupational safety and health regulations. –  Cecille Suerte Felipe, Mayen Jaymalin