After being hit by Fire Pasar stops Operations

ORMOC CITY, Philippines — The country’s only copper smelting plant, the Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corp. (PASAR), has stopped operations after its acid plant was burned Monday morning, the cause of which has yet to be determined to date. 

A fire broke out at the plant premises at around 6 a.m. on Monday, January 2, and took firefighters four hours to put it out. Burned was the acid plant that was vital to the plant’s anti-pollution measures.

It was not known yet when the plant would resume operations but unofficial sources said the management has been doing its best to get a ready-to-install replacement to the devices that burned down so that operations can resume as soon as possible.

Representative Lucy Torres-Gomez (4th district, Leyte) lauded the company’s sensitivity to the environment as shown by its stoppage of operations. PASAR could actually continue to operate without the acid plant but it chose not to because it could endanger the environment as a result, she said.

In a text message to Lucy’s husband and congressional chief of staff Richard Gomez, PASAR executives said that without the acid plant “is a big no-no” to the company.

The text read: “Part of our acid plant, which is our primary anti-pollution equip, burned down. Without it, we cannot operate our smelting plant, lest we spew sulfur dioxide gases to the atmosphere and harm the environment.”

PASAR also admitted to Gomez that there was only one person who suffered minor burn injury. It further said that the management thanked the firefighters for their quick response.

PASAR’s J. Paul Tan, assistant vice president for industrial and community relations, in a text message said investigation of the incident and assessment of the damage and effect to its operations and workers are still going on.

The estimated damage would not be easy to determine considering that PASAR is a big company and one of the country’s vital industries, said Tan.

Lucy had also assured the public that she has been concerned over the fate of the firm’s workers and employees, amid rumors that mass layoffs and retrenchment might follow.

The company has in its direct employ more than 700 people besides several hundreds others through service contractors.