Plastics factory hit by fire; P300T goods lost

ABOUT P300,000 in goods and items were lost in a fire that struck a plastic straw factory in barangay Paknaan, Mandaue City, past 9 a.m. yesterday.

SFO2 Roy Garcia, chief investigator of the Mandaue City Fire Station, said the fire broke out in the warehouse occupied by Tomorrow’s Plastic Inc. The factory is a subsidiary of Shemberg Marketing Corp.

Garcia said the fire began at the building’s annex where a strawder machine may have overheated. He said based on a statement from the company’s assistant vice president Frank Yap, the machine operator left the machine unattended.

Factory workers used extinguishers. The fire was put out at 10:34 a.m. with assistance from firemen in Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City and Consolacion town.

The factory’s finished products were spared.

The initial estimate of damage was P300,000 but could rise once Yap submits his inventory. Tomorrow’s Plastic Inc. has about 200 employees and produces plastic sacks, rope, and other straw products.

Jan Dakay, assistant to the company president, said the fire affected only 500 out of the 6,000-square-meter property that housed the factory.  Correspondent Jhunnex Napallacan and Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap