Fire hits old NBI building      

MANILA, Philippines — A fire hit a building of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Ermita, Manila  on Friday night.

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP)’s National Capital Region field office said the fire broke out at around 6:48 p.m. and reached second alarm.

A portion of Taft Avenue in front of the building became off-limits to motorists as fire trucks queued in the area.

Arson probers traced the fire to the second floor of the three-story building that was undergoing demolition. Firefighters put out the blaze at around 7:47 p.m., the BFP said in a report.

Nobody was killed or injured during the blaze, the cause of which is being investigated.

The NBI transferred its headquarters to V-Tech Tower along Araneta Avenue in Quezon City before May this year after the city government of Manila condemned the six-floor structure in 2019 due to huge fissures.

The NBI’s detainees were transferred to Building 14 in the New Bilibid Prison, meant to house high-risk prisoners.

The agency is set to build a new building that would rise in 2026, NBI Director Medardo de Lemos said.

The new structure would cost P2.5 billion and feature a multi-level parking lot, dormitories for personnel, a gymnasium, a shooting range and a facility for storing forensics equipment.