Fire exposes gunpowder, ammo cache

Firefighters accidentally uncovered around 100 crates of gunpowder and various types of ammunition when they responded to a fire that broke out at a warehouse in Valenzuela City before midnight Saturday.

“It was just an ordinary fire but if we failed to immediately contain the blaze, it could have caused a serious tragedy beyond imagination,” Chief Inspector Agapito Nacario, Valenzuela City Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) chief, told The STAR.

He added they were not aware of “the warehouse’s contents” and they managed to put the fire out when it was “two meters away from the stockpiled explosives.”

“I could not imagine what damage it could cause especially because the building is situated within a densely populated area,” Nacario said.

He said Stronghold Inc., which is engaged in the manufacture and distribution of ammunitions and explosives, owns the partially destroyed warehouse in Paso de Blas.

Nacario said a certain Kedin Go Cedenio, who was arrested by the authorities, owns the company, which has no permit or license to operate from the city government of Valenzuela.

Fire Officer 1 Nelson Baguinon, Valenzuela City arson investigator, said each crate contained around 280 boxes and each box weighs three kilos.

“We could not yet give the exact amount of the recovered items for we are still conducting our inventory. But we are talking of not only a million but millions of pesos here,” he said.

At around 11 p.m., the local BFP responded to an ongoing fire at the Stronghold Inc. warehouse at the Southeast Asia Food, Inc. compound on Paso de Blas. Firemen put out the fire, which started in the stockroom, in 20 minutes.

When they inspected the warehouse after the fire, Nacario, city police chief Senior Superintendent Reiner Idio and barangay chairman Fernando Esteban were alarmed when they found out that the warehouse contained more than a hundred crates of explosives and bullets.

The authorities found boxes of bullets for the .22 caliber rifle, .38 caliber revolver, .40 caliber pistol, .45 pistol, .380 revolver, .357 revolver, and 12-gauge shotgun, as well as a reloading machine for shotgun shells. 

Nacario said that apart from illegally operating in Valenzuela, Stronghold Inc., has committed several other “serious” violations, including violating the country’s fire code.

“The company has a lot of violations and explaining to do with the authorities. I’m also wondering how its operation was never detected, including the transportation of these explosives, for the warehouse is located only a stone’s throw away from the barangay hall, (and) a police sub-station,” Nacario said.

Proper charges are being readied against the firm’s owner while arson and police probers are still trying to determine the cause of the blaze.

Meanwhile, in Caloocan City, some 200 families in a squatter’s colony on 5th Avenue were rendered homeless by a four-hour fire caused by an unattended candle.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Mario Bagaman said the blaze started at around 7:20 p.m. at the house of Eliza Abesames and spread quickly throughout the neighborhood.

The fire reached Tasked Force Bravo before firemen with around 30 firetrucks put the blaze out at around 11:30 p.m. No one was reposted hurt in the incident, Bagaman said.