Firefighters wait for mall fire to burn out

MANILA, Philippines - Firefighters are simply waiting for the fire at the Divisoria Mall, which started at past midnight Thursday, to burn itself out, an official said yesterday.

Chief Inspector Bonifacio Carta said while the fire is contained – the blaze will no longer spread to adjacent buildings – they have kept the alert level at Task Force Charlie (the third of a five-level fire alarm) since they still have difficulty entering the burning six-story building. Carta heads the Manila Fire Department’s investigation and intelligence branch.

“It might take three to five days for us to completely put out the fire. Our firefighters have been experiencing difficulty to put out the fire because of the extensive heat and the collapse (of the building) is imminent,” he said.

They have also reduced the number of firetrucks from 100 last Thursday to 30 to 50 firetrucks yesterday. They work round the clock to ensure that the fire remains confined to the building.

“We decided to only utilize the firetrucks in Manila and the volunteers from the city because there could be a fire in other areas and they would be needing their firetrucks and firefighters,” Carta said. 

He added that they would not risk the lives of their firefighters just for the building and the items in it.

In a report by ABS-CBN, the Bureau of Fire Protection said the strategy now is let the mall smolder until its fuel supply runs out. They claim that the fire is sustained by light materials that will eventually run out three to four days from now.

Carta said 90 percent of the mall was affected by the fire, noting that the three upper floors have already sagged while the first, second and third floors were still stable.

He also said some liquefied petroleum gas tanks used by food stalls on the third floor caught fire but burned out when the LPG ran out.

Two employees were rescued from the burning mall two hours after the fire started. Security guard Teodoro Enriquez and maintenance worker Franklin Peralta were taken to the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and pronounced out of danger.

The mall occupies a block in Binondo and boasted of 5,000 square meters of store space.