Firemen’s prompt response saves family of five

Responding firefighters arrived just in the nick of time to save a family of five who were trapped inside a burning building beside Mandaluyong Medical Center before dawn yesterday.

“If we [had] arrived a few minutes later, all of them would have died of suffocation,” arson investigator SFO1 Victorio Tablay said in a phone interview.

Saved from certain death were Isagani Zulueta, 34; his wife Virgina, 38; and their three children identified as Isabel, 10; Emmanuel 6; and Viena, 2.

The family lives in Bulacan but have been temporarily staying at Johnvier Laboratory Clinic which is located on the second floor of a two-story establishment beside Mandaluyong Medical Center on Boni Avenue, Barangay Plainview.

At 1:40 a.m. yesterday, a fire broke out in the clinic which is owned by Zulueta’s sister. Alerted by the smoke, the family rushed out, only to realize that they were trapped because the gate which served as the only way in and out of the building had been padlocked. The key, on the other hand, was inside the burning clinic.

The family shouted for help as the smoke began to reach them.

“Good thing we arrived within two minutes because the fire station was just a few meters away. Had we gotten there late, we would have stumbled onto a tragedy,” Tablay said.

Firefighters opened the gate by force, rescued the family and took them to the hospital.

The blaze which reached the third alarm was put out at 2:38 a.m. But while firefighters were battling the flames, patients at Mandaluyong Medical Center had to be evacuated after thick black smoke engulfed the facility.

Tablay said Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos who lives nearby was awakened by the commotion and immediately rushed to the scene.

Hospital operations, however, returned to normal after members of the Bureau of Fire Protection declared the blaze under control.

Probers are still trying to determine what caused the fire although they suspect that it was probably due to faulty electrical wiring as the building was old and dilapidated.

Damage to property was placed at around P300,000.