Tutuban Mall fire put out after 2 days

MANILA, Philippines -  A fire that razed the Tutuban Mall in Divisoria, Manila was finally put out early yesterday, two days after it broke out, according to the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP).

Tutuban Properties Inc. issued a statement that Centermall 1 and 2 and the Prime Block Buildings have resumed normal or “business as usual” status, even as safeguards are still in place to ensure that the resumption operations will not hamper fire control efforts.

The management also promised to install help desks for tenants and stall owners, who are still reeling from their losses.

Twenty-eight firefighters, 11 volunteers and two civilians were injured in the blaze that broke out in the mall’s Cluster Building 1, where garments are mainly sold, at 12:41 a.m. Wednesday.

“Most of the cases were minor lacerations, minor suffocation and minor burns,” Fire Officer 1 Louie Ebio said.

The fire reached Task Force Delta, meaning all units in the National Capital Region are required to respond.

BFP spokesman Chief Inspector Renato Marcial said the fire was officially declared out 1 a.m. yesterday.

Arson investigators said the fire is believed to have started in the middle of Stall No. C-18, rented by a certain Maria Theresa Chen, on the ground floor of the three-story building.

Firefighters had difficulty entering the mall to get at the fire due to lack of breathing devices.

The cause of the fire and the cost of the damage to properties are yet to be determined but stall owners said businessmen have lost millions of pesos, not counting their projected income in the coming months.

Ric de Guzman, Mayor Alfredo Lim’s chief of staff, advised mall tenants not to enter the premises because the city engineering office has yet to check if the building is structurally sound.