Fire razes Baclaran mall

It took firefighters more than 10 hours to put out a blaze that razed a shopping mall in Baclaran, Pasay City yesterday.

Superintendent Sofia Mendoza, district fire marshal of the Bureau of Fire and the National Capital Region Tactical Operations, said the fire – which destroyed the three-story Galleria Baclaran Shopping Mall on Taft Avenue Extension – reached Task Force Echo, meaning local firefighters need assistance from firefighters in other parts of Metro Manila.

The fire reportedly originated in one of the stalls located at the second floor of the mall, around 6 a.m. Several of the items sold in the shopping complex were RTW garments.

The firemen had a hard time containing the blaze. The narrow street and the presence of numerous vendors prevented firetrucks from going near the building. Strong winds also reportedly made it difficult for firefighters to douse the flames.

Fire volunteers said the damage caused by the blaze at the Baclaran Mall could have been minimized if the alarm had been raised for other firefighters from all over Metro Manila to help as soon as the blaze got out of hand.

Senior Fire Officer 2 Felix Lazarte, assistant operations chief of the Pasay Fire Station, explained that at past 6 a.m., the fire has already been raised to second alarm. “It was difficult for us because of strong winds, and the mall was still closed around that time. The security guards would not want to open it. We had to go to the back portion of the establishment to avoid the strong winds,” he said.

Lazarte said the stores inside the mall were totally destroyed.

There were around 70 firetrucks that rushed to the area to help extinguish the fire. The fire was declared under control at about 3:35 p.m.

Fire officials said the incident resulted in damage to property worth more than P30 million. No one was reported injured in the incident.

Arson investigators said they are still conducting a follow-up investigation to determine the real cause of the blaze, which earlier reports attributed to a malfunctioning airconditioning unit in one of the stalls in the mall.

The fire also affected the operations of the Light Rail Transit, since the mall’s second floor is connected to the LRT’s Baclaran station.

LRT Authority administrator Melquiades Robles said they “decided to operate just three-fourths of the rail line” at around 10 a.m.

The LRTA said it continuously monitored the fire, which supposedly broke out as early as 5:20 a.m. At 7 a.m., the agency was told the fire was supposedly under control.

When the fire flared up again, the LRTA decided to cut its trains’ southbound run, which starts from Monumento and ends at Baclaran, to its Buendia station.

At around 10 a.m. when the fire continued to rage at the Baclaran mall, the LRTA operations division decided to turn off the power at the Libertad and EDSA Taft stations.

At around 11 a.m., the LRTA further cut the run of the rail line from Monumento to Vito Cruz and vice versa.

Meanwhile, officials of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the stalls and other obstructions on the road leading to the burning mall in Baclaran were among the reasons why it took firefighters more that 10 hours to contain the blaze.

Senior Inspector Dionito Maslang, chief of the Pasay City Fire Department, also pointed out that the mall contained fabric and other flammable materials, making it hard for firefighters to immediately put out the fire.

“It’s not true that we did not respond promptly. We arrived at the scene five minutes after receiving a call about the fire,” Maslang told The STAR.

Maslang said it would be unfair for dedicated firefighters to be accused of being lazy when they have been risking their lives just to do their sworn duty to ensure the safety of the general public.

Ranking officials of the BFP, including Senior Superintendent Carlito Romero, also rushed to the scene.

Reports have it that the fire may have started from an airconditioning unit left running overnight Wednesday.

Authorities said the fire forced many vendors in the area and stall owners at nearby establishments to shut down for the day. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Cecille Suerte Felipe