‘This is why we want total ’cracker ban’

LESSONS NEVER LEARNED A six-hour inferno sparked by a firecracker rages in Tondo, Manila, in the first morning of 2016. Such New Year calamities recur despite repeated government warnings against the use of firecrackers. “It’s the same old story…The residents don’t listen,” a fire department official sighed in frustration. Photo by RICHARD A. REYES

A firecracker that exploded indoors caused a massive New Year inferno in the slums of Tondo, Manila, that left a resident dead and around 3,000 families homeless.

The year 2016 also started on a tragic, fiery note for scores of families in Valenzuela, Mandaluyong and Quezon City.

“It’s the same old story,” Senior Insp. Marvin Carbonel, chief of Manila fire department’s District 1, said in frustration. “Incidents like this happen every year. The residents don’t listen. That’s why we really want a total ban on firecrackers.”

Chief Supt. Leonard Bañago, chief of the Metro Manila fire bureau, identified the fatality as Danilo Francisco, a resident who was last seen drunk during the New Year revelry. Francisco failed to get out of his house as his Raxabago neighborhood went up in flames. His relatives didn’t know he had died until his charred body was recovered from the site.

Quoting a witness, Carbonel said a firecracker—a “kwitis” or rocket—that landed inside the abandoned house of Lolay Soriano started the fire around 2:45 a.m. of Jan. 1.

But 15 minutes passed before firefighters received a call. By the time they reached the area, fear-stricken residents were already cramming the alleys, slowing down the fire trucks. A road repair project on Yuseco Street also hindered their entry.

When some of the trucks ran out of water, firefighters had little use for  the hydrants in the area because water supply runs low in that part of Tondo in the wee hours, Carbonel noted. The strong winds also fanned the flames “from one direction to another.”

About 100 trucks responded

—including some that had posters warning against the use of firecrackers—before the fire was declared out around 9 a.m.

At least four residents were reportedly injured while about a thousand structures in Barangays 155 and 160 were destroyed, including the barangay hall of 155.

Residents Jenny Gatus, Fely Dizon and barangay hall employee Mara Guizon recalled that the flames spread so fast that some of their neighbors picked up any container in panic and mistakenly splashed gasoline or oil on the fire, making it worse.

Barangay Chair Zaldy Bernabe said he received reports that some residents who helped control the blaze ended up needing to be rescued, “their faces slick with oil.”

Gatus also recalled hearing a series of “LPG tank explosions.”

“We need help, any kind of help. We would accept even a cup of coffee,” said Malaya Diwa, another barangay hall caretaker, who also lost her home.

A 65-year-old mother of a Barangay 160 official died from a heart attack reportedly when she heard of the fire, but SFO4 John Halique, chief arson investigator, said she was not considered a fire fatality since her house was far from the affected neighborhoods.

In Valenzuela City, a fire believed to have been caused by a firecracker known as Judas Belt started from a two-story house and spread to at least 12 neighboring  apartments on MacArthur Highway, Barangay Malanday. The hour-long blaze, which started at 5:55 a.m., displaced seven families.

According to the initial investigation, the fire may have started from the structure’s second floor occupied by Oscar Siason, 47.  This prompted the residents to evacuate the area without taking out any of their belongings.

In Quezon City, 15 families spent the first day of 2016 in an evacuation site after a 2 a.m. fire engulfed their homes on Tiburcio Extension, Barangay Krus na Ligas, Diliman.

No one died but one resident reported that a dog was almost burned alive at the house of Priscilla Sabangan, where the fire started.

Barangay Krus na Ligas Chair Julian Santos appealed for help on behalf of the displaced residents.

In Mandaluyong City, an electrical malfunction was believed to have caused the fire that hit a two-story apartment on P. Lopez Street, New Zaniga.

RELATED VIDEO