(Eagle News)—Over P50 million worth of property was lost in two fires in Manila on Friday night.
The first fire took place in the Bureau of Customs in Manila around 9 p.m.
The blaze started on the third floor of the P-O-M building which housed records, and quickly spread to other structures including the Port of Manila.
“Yung building po na yun, isang isolated na building.. Pag stockpile yan, yan po ay madaling masunog at pag nasunog po yan, yan po ay mahirap patayin kasi yung sa pinakailalim niya, kailangan yun babaran ng tubig o kaya kalkalin yun,” Fire Senior Supt. Jonas Silvano, district fire marshal, said.
The blaze reached the fifth alarm, and destroyed P50 million worth of property.
“We are mandated by law to keep soft copies (of our records). Our IT building is somewhere else, nandun naman database ng BOC that is safe and secure, so all of our electronic copies of all our transactions are there, walang affected,” Atty. Dino Austria, spokesperson of the BoC, said.
Almost two hours later, another fire struck the Parola compound.
Several families lost their homes in the blaze that reached the fifth alarm.
The blaze also destroyed property worth P1.5 million.
“Yan naman ang madalas na o kaya yung naiwang pinaglutuan o kaya minsan yung bata naglalaro ng apoy,” Silvano said.
“In everything that we do, every day, every hour, dapat fire-conscious tayo,” he added. Earlo Bringas