Fire destroys factory in Valenzuela City

An estimated P15 million worth of property were destroyed after a five-hour fire broke out early morning yesterday at a cardboard manufacturing factory in Valenzuela City.

Chief Inspector Agapito Nacario, Valenzuela City Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) chief, said that a single-storey building occupied by Philpack Commercial Corp. at 18 Dizon Compound in Barangay Maysan was gutted.

Nacario said that the Philpack Commercial Corp., owned by Chinese-Filipino businessman Tomas Co, is engaged in the production and labeling of carton and cardboard boxes.

Inspector Enrico Caco, the local BFP arson chief, said the blaze started at around 5:25 a.m. at the production area of the factory, which contained tons of materials used in making carton boxes and the company’s machines.

The easily burned materials contributed in the spread of the fire, which quickly engulfed the whole structure.

The fire raged continuously for more than two hours before firefighters declared it under control at around 7:45 a.m. and prevented it from leaping to adjacent structures.

Firefighters trained water hoses in the burning building for three hours before the fire was declared under control, Caco said.

Eugene Co, son of the firm’s owner, told arson investigators that Philpack Commercial Corp. incurred some P15 million in damages.

Caco said that nobody was reported hurt in the incident but his men were still conducting further investigation to determine what caused the five-hour blaze.                     – Pete Laude