P100M property destroyed in Cagayan De Oro fire

Firefighters battle with the flames that gutted a warehouse of PLDT subsidiary PLDT-Philcom in Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City on Tuesday, August 13. (Photo by Jigger Jerusalem, Inquirer Mindanao)

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY –– A fire on Tuesday, August 13, that lasted more than 10 hours gutted over a hundred million pesos worth of materials, equipment, and devices stored in a warehouse owned by telecoms giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company’s subsidiary PLDT-Philcom Corporation in Barangay Carmen here.

Senior Fire Officer 3 Samson Velarde, Carmen fire station commander, said the fire started at 4:06 a.m. inside the warehouse located at the back of the PLDT-Philcom business office.

By 9:28 a.m., the fire was declared “under control” but as of this posting, firefighters were still trying to put out the flames stoked by the large volume of materials mostly made of plastic.

Velarde said the blaze may be caused by faulty wiring or by the live batteries stored inside the warehouse alongside heaps of paper, pieces of carton, rolls of wire with thick rubber insulators, telephone sets, fiber modems, optical line terminals, and other materials.

The batteries may have created a spark that started the fire, he explained.

Velarde estimated the warehouse structure’s damage at P5 million.

Meanwhile, the destroyed materials and equipment were valued at P106 million, according to PLDT-Philcom Northern Mindanao area head Dario Vasallo.

Because of the fire, power was cut off in the area, a nearby school had to suspend classes due to the thick smoke, and business was suspended in the PLDT-Philcom facility. /lzb