A 17-year-old girl was killed yesterday morning when a fire gutted several houses in Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City.
Arson investigators identified the victim as Rea de Mesa, who was reportedly a special child. De Mesa died of suffocation after she was trapped inside her burning house.
The fire started at 8:40 a.m. and quickly spread to nearby shanties located at Magdaong Drive in the New Bilibid Prison reservation area. Initial reports said the blaze started at the house of a certain Toto Vicente.
Chief Inspector Roderick Aguto of the Muntinlupa Fire Station said 15 houses were destroyed and 20 families were rendered homeless.
Muntinlupa Mayor Aldrin San Pedro ordered the city’s Social Services Department (SSD) to provide the needs of the affected families and provide financial assistance to the victims.
Meanwhile, Pasay City fire officials finally declared a fire out yesterday morning, 60 hours after the fire started at the Baclaran Terminal Plaza Mall last Sunday night.
City Fire Marshall Senior Inspector Junito Maslang said six firetrucks were still deployed at the shopping mall near the Light Rail Transit station in Baclaran, to prevent a renewed outbreak of the fire.
Maslang said the firefighters had difficulty putting out the fire since the firefighters cannot enter the building because of the thick smoke. The fire even spread to other stalls in the mall area thus prolonging the firefighting activities that lasted for 60 hours.
He said an estimated P20 million worth of merchandise were destroyed but no one was reported injured in the incident.
The Baclaran Terminal Plaza blaze was the fourth fire to break out near LRT stations this year.
A fire at the Good Earth Plaza suspended operations at the LRT Station in Carriedo Street in Sta. Cruz Manila, last week.
Last month, a fire gutted the Puregold Plaza shopping mall located near the Libertad Station along Taft Avenue in Pasay City.
Another fire destroyed the Galleria Baclaran shopping mall, which was also near the Baclaran Station last January.