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Wednesday, December 27, 2006
26 killed in Ormoc fire
By Oscar C. Pineda With Dennes R. Tabar
CEBU CITY -- A display of firecrackers exploded and began a fire that killed 26 shoppers, including children, and razed a warehouse-type supermarket in Ormoc City at 4:30 p.m. on Christmas Day.
Fourteen others were injured in the fire that swiftly reminded local officials to enforce rules limiting the sale of pyrotechnic devices, such as by designating firecracker zones.
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Ormoc City Mayor Eric Codilla said he has yet to confirm reports about missing persons.
Initial accounts that the single-level store's only fire exit was locked were confirmed, when investigators found the emergency exit's door, its padlock still fastened.
The Bureau of Fire Protection placed damage to property at P1.5 million.
In Cebu, two fires during the Christmas weekend destroyed six buildings in the Provincial Capitol compound and a furniture warehouse in Mandaue City.
The store's management is expected to give P40,000 to each family that lost a loved one in the Ormoc fire, plus P10,000 each to pay for their coffins, said Vincent Rama, whose funeral parlor handled the victims' remains.
The fire razed Unitop General Merchandising, a supermarket whose registered owner is Ricardo Prieto, said Ormoc deputy police chief Reynaldo Gabon.
ABS-CBN Manila aired footage of an unidentified young woman who saved herself by climbing up to the roof of a three-story building beside the supermarket, then making her way down that building's fire exit, while the crowd below cheered her on.
Local resident Marc Escario said the supermarket occupied an 800-square-meter property along Real St., a main road in downtown Ormoc City.
Based on supermarket security guard Dennis Almoroto's account, Gabon said a loud explosion rang out, followed by cracking sounds from a display of "sawa" or firecracker chains near the supermarket's main entrance.
Only one glass door was open at the time and thick smoke prevented the shoppers from seeing it. Some managed to run out.
But the others scrambled toward the back of the supermarket and rushed inside its two comfort rooms, where most of the bodies were discovered later.
Ormoc Police Director Manuel Cubillo told radio dySS he saw the burned body of a woman still holding on to a carrier containing a small charred body.
One of the fatalities was a salesclerk who was planning to ask for a transfer by the end of the year, so she could proceed with her nursing studies.
Gabon learned from the guard that the pyrotechnics sent a shower of sparks and flames up to the store's ceiling. From there, the blaze spread to plastic wares and DVD materials on display.
Escario said there was a fire exit at the back of the supermarket but it was locked, so firefighter SFO2 Bernardo Corpin forced it open to allow some survivors out.
Mayor Codilla told Sun.Star Cebu that the fire, declared a general alarm or the most serious of four alarm levels, was controlled an hour after it started.
He will discuss with his officials what support they can extend.
Escario recalled that on December 23, a pushcart full of firecrackers exploded near a gasoline station. No one was injured and the damage was negligible.
The Bureau of Fire Protection confirmed that the previous incident took place at 5:57 p.m. Saturday along Aviles St., also within the city's commercial district. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Bacolod. (December 27, 2006 issue)
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