Pasay hit by 4th fire this year

A day after Pasay City fire officials put out a fire that gutted the Baclaran Terminal Plaza Mall, another fire destroyed part of a condominium building yesterday.

This was the fourth fire to break out in Pasay City this year. Apart from the fire at the Baclaran Terminal Mall that started Sunday night, a fire gutted the Puregold Plaza shopping mall near the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Libertad station along Taft Avenue a month ago.

Last January, another fire destroyed the Galleria Baclaran shopping mall, which was also near the Baclaran LRT station.

City Fire Marshall Junito Maslang said the blaze, which started around 11:15 a.m. yesterday, destroyed the 14th to the 24th floors of the Central Park Condominium Building 1 on B. Jorge and M. Reyes streets, near the boundary of Pasay and Makati cities.

Maslang said a lit cigarette thrown into the garbage chute reportedly caused the fire. No one was reported hurt in the fire, which was put out at 12:36 p.m.

Firefighters said the lack of water at the site made it difficult for them to immediately douse the fire.

Earlier, firemen also complained that the lack of water and thick smoke made the fire at the Baclaran mall last for 60 hours before it was put out.

Maslang said that to prevent instances wherein firemen are not able to enter the burning but locked-up establishments, security guards on duty should be briefed on how to respond to emergency situations and that “forcible entry tools” should be made available.

He also reminded residents and businessmen in the city to exercise care in the use of electrical appliances in their homes and offices.

“They should also be conscious of the bad household habits they’ve developed that might unfortunately, result to developing fires in their respective areas,” Maslang added.