Fire guts Clark factory; 2,000 workers halt production

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines— A Hong Kong-based company manufacturing high-end clothes halted production because of a fire that gutted its factory here on Friday night.

Franco Madlangbayan, vice president of the Clark Development Corp., confirmed that work at the Smart Shirts Phils. Inc. had been stopped starting Saturday, affecting its 2,000 employees.

The fire broke out at past 10 p.m. in a building section which stored finished goods, Madlangbayan said in a telephone interview.

He said fire fighters began mopping up work at the 16,000-square-meter facility  at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday after fire-retardant foam from the Clark International Airport Corp. tamed the flames.

But as of 10 a.m., the CDC fire marshal had not yet declared the fire out.

Smart Shirts management has not issued a statement yet. The cost of damage was not yet known.

The company started operations on February 2003.

Madlangbayan said no one was reported killed, hurt or missing.

Ludy Hamor, president of the Smart Shirts Phils. Inc. Workers Union, said  employees who worked the night shift or had come to help move out goods, had been advised to go home.

She said the human resource officer verbally declared no work on Saturday.

Hamor said she and the local management were waiting for an official to arrive from Hong Kong to assess the factory’s situation.

Madlangbayan said the government-owned CDC has offered the company its resources to help resume regular operations.