LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – A male employee of the House Technologies Inc (HTI) died in the hospital, making him the first fatality in the big fire that razed the Japanese factory in Cavite’s Export Processing Zone in General Trias town.
The victim Jerome Sismaet, 34, a resident of Maragondon town, also in Cavite, died of severe burns around 12:30 a.m. Sunday while being treated at the Divine Grace Medical Center in General Trias, Cavite Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla said in a phone interview. Sismaet also sustained fractures in his pelvic.
“He was a line leader, who stayed behind to let his people go out (of the burning building) first,” Remulla said. He added that most of those in critical condition were team leaders.
The six-hectare HTI building that housed wood and other combustible materials for manufacturing home fixtures was razed by fire on Wednesday evening. Over 100 employees were hurt and the company reported its losses to be more than P10 billion.
Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon (CALABARZON) fire director Sr. Supt. Sergio Soriano, in a separate interview, said they so far found “no indications” of people being trapped inside the building as fire and forensic experts inspected the area over the weekend. JE/rga
RELATED STORIES
100 workers trapped, hurt in Cavite factory fire
Probe of Cavite factory fire starts