Injured due to fireworks now 680

MANILA -- A four-year-old child was killed by a stray bullet while hundreds of people were injured by fireworks during the New Year revelries, the state disaster agency reported Wednesday.

The lone New Year fatality, identified as Ranjelo Nimer from Mandaluyong City, was hit by a stray bullet fired by a certain Emmanuel Janabon-Luillalon on December 31 around 9 p.m., according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

The victim was rushed to the Mandaluyong Medical Center but was declared dead on arrival.

The agency also reported that as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, a total of 680 firework-related injuries were reported in Metro Manila and in other regions.

Metro Manila has the biggest number of firework-related injuries with 214, followed by Ilocos region with 126 and Central Luzon with 97.

Earlier, Health Secretary Enrique Ona said the most serious case of firecracker injury involved a 17-year-old man from Valenzuela City, who used a "Goodbye Philippines" firecracker that exploded in his right hand.

Besides the slain child from Mandaluyong City, the NDRRMC also reported 17 other victims of stray bullets. At least 10 of them were from Metro Manila who are mostly admitted at the East Avenue Medical Center (EAMC) and Pasig City General Hospital.

Among the 17 stray bullet victims were a two-year-old child from Tandang Sora, Quezon City, and Eduardo Tavarra, 74, from Tigbauan, Iloilo. A seven-year-old child identified as Stephanie Ella from Caloocan City is in a deep coma at the EAMC after being hit by a stray bullet at the top of her head.

In a radio interview, Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police, said the number of stray bullet victims during the New Year revelries increased to 40.

The NDRRMC also reported at least seven fire incidents on December 31 and January 1 but the causes of the fires have yet to be determined if they are related to firecracker use.

Among the fire incidents reported by the agency was the one that razed 15 houses in Barangay Commonwealth, Fairview, Quezon City past Tuesday midnight.

The fire reached the fourth alarm and was declared out at 1:50 a.m. The estimated damage amounts to P300,000.

Also past Tuesday midnight, a fire razed a two-storey building in Barangay E. Rodriguez, Cubao, Quezon City, destroying property worth about P1 million.

In an earlier radio interview, Bureau of Fire Protection National Capital Region Chief Inspector Renato Marcial said 12 fire incidents in Metro Manila were reported during the New Year celebrations. (Emmanuel Louis Bacani/Sunnex)