Fire destroys 200 stalls in Baclaran’s flea mart

A six-hour fire that began Tuesday night swept through a chain of stalls selling clothes at the popular Baclaran flea market in Parañaque City, destroying millions of pesos worth of merchandise and temporarily disrupting operations of Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1.

Chief Inspector Douglas Guiyab, the city fire marshal, said the fire could have originated from a stall in Barangay 145’s South Terminal Commercial Center below LRT Line 1’s Baclaran station.

Some P5 million worth of property was destroyed in the blaze, Guiyab said.

The fire, which began past 8 p.m. on Tuesday, spread quickly because of the clothing merchandise in the stalls, the official told the Inquirer over the phone.

Guiyab said arson investigators were still sifting through the ruins to determine what caused the blaze, which was declared under control around

4 a.m.

Guiyab  said that fire fighters had a hard time putting out the fire  because their movements were restricted owing to the narrow and congested alleys leading to the site, not to mention the  crowds that rushed toward their burning homes in an attempt to save their personal belongings.

Some 200 stalls burned down in the incident, according to Guiyab.

LRT Line 1 officials, meanwhile, stepped in to control the traffic of its coaches headed to the Buendia and Baclaran Stations because of poor visibility along the train tracks.

The situation normalized when the trains resumed its operations Wednesday morning.