Fire lands 5 hotel employees in hospital for smoke inhalation

FIVE employees of a newly opened hotel and residential tower in Makati City were rushed to the hospital on Saturday night after the establishment’s basement caught fire.

Makati City fire marshal Supt. Ricardo Perdigon told the Inquirer that the fire in Basement 4 of the Discovery Primea Suites at 6749 Ayala Ave. started around 10 p.m. and trapped several personnel working in the affected area.

They were later taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Perdigon identified the five as maintenance workers Rolando Mangua, Marlon Agapito, Nathaniel Carlos Jr., Archie Reyes and security guard Reyes Ricardo.

“They were trapped [in] Basement 4 during the blaze but they were immediately rescued by our firemen and brought to Makati Medical Center,” he added.

Perdigon admitted that it took about four hours for his men to put out the blaze in the 68-story building because the smoke was so thick, making it almost impossible to see where the fire was coming from.

“It was also a very confined space which was very hot so the firemen were not able to get inside the basement easily,” he added, noting that they were still investigating the cause of the blaze.

It was about 2 a.m. when the affected area of the building was cleared, leaving about P100,000-worth of damage to property.

According to its website, the luxury residential tower had a soft opening in February.

A post on Discovery Primea’s official Facebook page said that management was able to immediately evacuate all guests, residents and staff from the building. Maricar B. Brizuela