Fire hits house near Malacañang

Firemen on 20 firetrucks rushed to put out a fire that broke out at a four-story house about 100 meters away from Malacañang palace last night.

Manila District Fire (MDF) Marshal Pablito Cordeta described their response to the fire as “overkill,” but said it was necessary because the house on Acacia street in San Miguel was near enough to be “considered as a high threat to security.” Aside from the trucks, medical personnel in an ambulance were also at the scene.

The house caught fire at around 7:33 p.m. and firemen put it out 17 minutes later.

“It is just a small house, about 20 to 25 square meters per floor and might have one room per floor,” Cordeta said.

The house, which was unoccupied at the time of the fire, is owned by a certain Mr. Revilla but it was leased to a certain Mr. Monteclaro. He added, “The door was locked and we had to forcibly open it.”

The fire consumed the third and fourth floors of the building and the cost of damage was pegged at P50,000. Arson investigators have yet to determine the cause of the fire.

In another part of Manila,  a 30-minute fire razed some 15 shanties along an estero adjacent to three private universities on Taft Avenue yesterday morning.

Fire officials raised the fifth alarm as fire threatened to engulf the buildings of Sta. Isabel College, Philippine Normal University and the Adamson University. Firefighters had to hose down the three structures to prevent the fire from spreading.

According to arson investigator SFO2 Wison Tana, the fire strated at around 10:12 a.m. at the shanty of Wilma Pagdilao. There were unverified reports that the fire was caused by one of Pagdilao’s children whom witnesses said was seen playing with a lighter.

Arson investigators ruled out faulty electrical wiring as the cause of the fire since the entire neighborhood has no electric power. No one was reported injured in the fire, which was put out at around 10:29 a.m. Damage to property was placed at P100,000.  – Evelyn Macairan, Nestor Etolle