Star City fire leaves P 1B worth of damage

STAR ATTRACTION GONE Smoke continues to rise from the Star City complex hours after a fire broke out in a stockroom shortly after Tuesday midnight. Officials say the amusement park may not reopen until October next year. —EDWIN BACASMAS

A fire that broke out shortly after Tuesday midnight destroyed a vast portion of Star City, leaving P1 billion worth of damage and hundreds of regular and seasonal employees uncertain about their future.

The amusement park in Pasay City, a favorite destination of families during the holiday season, had already closed for the day when the blaze started at 12:22 a.m. As a result, there were no casualties.

According to Supt. Paul Pili, the city fire marshal, the flames started in the stockroom of Star Games where stuffed toys,  prizes and light materials were kept.

After two hours, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) raised the alarm status to Task Force Bravo, which required at least 19 fire trucks to respond.

The blaze, however, spread swiftly through the two-story indoor amusement park, gutting the adjacent Manila Broadcasting Co. (MBC) building which housed the offices of its radio and television stations, in addition to Aliw Theater.

The country’s oldest radio station, dzRH, was forced to go off the air although officials said in a statement that it would resume broadcasting within 48 hours.

FM stations unaffected

MBC’s FM radio stations Love Radio, Yes the Best and Easy Rock, on the other hand, were operating normally.

The blaze was finally put out at 2:02 p.m. on Wednesday with the help of 70 fire trucks that rushed to the scene.

According to Pili, around 80 percent of the Star City building, which housed the amusement park’s over 30 rides, was destroyed.

Only a few rides located outside the building, including the ferris wheel and roller coasters, were spared, as well as the facade of the MBC building and the Star City entrance on Vicente Sotto Street.

Rudolph Juralbal, spokesperson and vice president of the Elizalde Group of Companies which owns Star City and MBC, said the theme park would reopen in October 2020.

The yearlong closure was necessary to allow the importation of rides and the reconstruction of the amusement park, he added.

Juralbal said that seasonal workers would have to wait until the attraction’s reopening, adding that hundreds of regular employees would be given financial assistance.

Cause under investigation

The cause of the fire was still under investigation, although based on the BFP’s initial findings, it could be electrical, according to Pili.

Investigators were also looking at arson after a cryptic message saying, “Star City is dying,” was sent to the theme park owners.

But the 12-year-old boy who posted the message on Twitter on Sunday clarified that he was referring to the fictional Star City in the “Arrow” TV series, which featured the DC Comics superhero, Green Arrow.

He said the photo in his post was a preview of the Star City he had designed for an online game platform.

The theme park management later clarified that the controversial tweet was not related to the fire.