Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Tiong San Harrison resumes operation
LESS than a week after being hit by the second worst fire in Baguio this year, and after incurring an estimated P45-million in losses, Tiong San Harrison has already reopened.
According to the Tiong San Harrison management, they reopened and restarted operations on April 8, and thanked all of the people who have helped and showed concern to them during and after the conflagration.
They said they have reopened all floors from the basement up to the fifth, and assured that their sixth and upper floors have already been inspected and certified to be safe by certified professional structural engineers.
"We would like to express our sincerest gratitude to all of you for your acts of selflessness and support during the fire at Tiong San Harrison building last April 2. We are deeply touched by your concern and assistance where loss of life was averted and damage to property was controlled. May God bless you always," they said.
In a letter to Baguio Fire Marshal Jovencio Marquez, the Tiong San Group of Companies also said they would like to "sincerely apologize for the negative experience of some of (the) brave firefighters and volunteers from their security personnel during the fire."
"We deeply regret this unfortunate incident. As a company, this is not representative of the way we treat unsung heroes. If there is anything that we can do at this point, to rectify the conduct of our security personnel, please let us know. We are doing a comprehensive review of our security procedures to ensure that the unprofessional conduct of some of our personnel will never occur again," they said.
They explained that during the time their sixth and seventh floors were in flames, their regular security personnel assisted in the firefighting, and that reliever guards from other detachments of the same agency were deployed there at the time.
"We did not know that these relievers put the firefighters and volunteers through their regular security procedures, and since they were only posted there during that emergency situation that we all did not expect, there was no time to brief them properly. They thought that what they were doing was right, since that was how they were trained, and we had no prior knowledge of what happened," they clarified.
"We recognize that one letter of apology cannot erase the unfortunate incident, but like you, (we are) thankful that no one was injured. We express our sincerest gratitude to your personnel and volunteers for the acts of selflessness and for risking your lives to help us through the crisis," they added.
Although the establishment's management still has to submit a notarized affidavit of loss or inventory to the Baguio Fire Office, they estimate that their losses may go as high as P45 million, due to the large amount of stocks piled up to the ceilings of the two affected floors.
In earlier reports, the sixth and seventh floors of Tiong San Harrison were gutted by fire last April 2.
According to Marquez, they are still looking into the cause of the blaze. (ENO)
