Flaming bus burns 3 shops; toppled tanker spills fuel in QC

Around P5 million worth of property was destroyed in a roadside fire that started from a bus in Quezon City Thursday night.

A Fermina Express bus (TXK 880) had already unloaded passengers after stalling due to engine trouble on Commonwealth Avenue around 10 p.m., when it suddenly burst into flames, according to fire officials.

Deputy city fire marshal Supt. Samuel Tadeo said the fire spread to a nearby truck and at least three establishments along the eastbound lane of the highway, just after Tandang Sora flyover in Barangay Old Balara.

Fire investigator SFO1 Rosendo Cabillan said the bus driven by Leo Mayo, 38, was moving through Commonwealth when Mayo noticed that the accelerator was not working properly.

The driver asked the passengers to get off and decided to head back to his terminal at SM Fairview for repairs.

When the bus stalled en route to the terminal, a mechanic later arrived to fix the vehicle. It suddenly caught fire as he was tinkering with it.

The flaming bus then started to move backwards until it hit a parked Izusu Elf truck belonging to Mercy Alcaraz.

The fire spread to the truck and later to three business establishments—two silk-screen printing shops and another shop selling container drums—also owned by Alcaraz.

The shops were already closed and no one was injured in the fire.

Responding firefighters took about an hour to put out the blaze, Tadeo said.

Also in Quezon City, a tanker carrying around 10,000 liters of fuel fell on its side on Friday afternoon, spilling its flammable cargo on the road.

The tanker, driven by Bonifacio Rafal and reportedly owned by Ferdinand Isidro, was loaded with diesel, kerosene and gasoline when its brakes failed around 2 p.m. on Litex Road.

City fire marshal Supt. Jesus Fernandez said Rafal lost control and sent the tanker falling on its side.

Teams from the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority were called in to clean up the spill.