P10 M lost in Taguig warehouse fire

MANILA, Philippines - Some P10 million worth of goods went up in smoke as a fire that lasted for more than nine hours gutted two warehouses in Western Bicutan, Taguig City on Friday night.

According to Senior Inspector Vener Sevilla, Taguig City fire department chief arson investigator, the fire started in the office of Baduz Marketing Inc. at the Veterans Compound at about 11:20 p.m.

The office is at the mezzanine of one of the warehouses, Sevilla said. The warehouses are owned by a certain Jocelyn Yu, the Taguig fire department said.

The fire destroyed five delivery vans and three motorcycles in the first warehouse, then spread to the second facility, where candy, milk, household chemicals and diapers were stored.

No one was reported hurt or killed in the fire, Sevilla said.

According to Sevilla, the blaze reached Task Force Alpha at about 1:30 a.m. and was placed under control at about 2:10 a.m. It was put out by 8:03 a.m. yesterday, he said.

Sevilla said some 21 firetrucks from various Chinese volunteer firefighter brigades and 11 firetrucks from the Bureau of Fire Protection rushed to the scene. Firefighters had difficulty getting to the warehouse as the closed vans blocked the entrances to the warehouse.

“We had to demolish the warehouse walls so that our firemen could get in,” he said.

Sevilla added that the firefighters also made sure that the fire did not spread to the nearby warehouses, which contained cardboard products and fireworks.

“Had we not done that, the fire could have been bigger,” he said.

Sevilla said they are looking at the possibility that the blaze was caused by faulty electrical wiring at the warehouse office.