5 rescued from fire next to Mandaluyong hospital

MANILA, Philippines—In the nick of time, Mandaluyong firefighters arrived at a burning building adjacent to the Mandaluyong Medical Center early Wednesday and saved a family of five who had been trapped inside.

“If we arrived a few minutes later, all of them would have died of suffocation,” SFO1 Victorio Tablay, arson investigator, said over the phone.

Those who survived were identified as  Isagani Zulueta, 34, his wife Virgina, 38, and their three children:  Isabel, 10, Emmanuel 6, Viena, 2.

The family, who hailed from Bulacan, were temporarily staying at the Johnvier Laboratory Clinic located on the second floor of a two-story establishment next to the Mandaluyong Medical Center on Boni Avenue in Barangay Plainview when the fire broke out.

Tablay said the owner of the clinic, Normilita Zulueta Villarico, allowed her brother’s family to stay since the clinic would be closed during the holidays.

When the fire began at 1:40 a.m. at the clinic, the Zuluetas, who were alerted by the smoke, panicked and rushed to get out the building. But they forgot that the metal gate, the building’s only entrance and exit, had been padlocked.

“The key to the gate was kept in the burning room so it would be impossible for them to go back,” Tablay said.

The family shouted for help as the smoke began to reach them.

“Good thing, we arrived in two minutes because the fire station was just a few meters away. If we were a little late, we would be stumbling on a tragedy,” he said.

The firefighters forced the gate open and took the family to the adjacent hospital for a check-up.

The fire was put out at exactly 2:38 a.m. But while the firefighters struggled to control it, hospital patients were evacuated as the thick black smoke entered through the hospital’s windows.

Tablay said even Mandaluyong Mayor Benhur Abalos, who lives nearby, was awakened by the commotion and immediately went to the scene “to comfort the patients.”

The hospital operations were back to normal as soon as the Bureau of Fire Protection declared the fire  under control.

While probers still do not know what caused the fire, they suspect  it could be faulty electrical wiring, claiming that the building was old and dilapidated.

Damage to property was estimated at P300,000, Tablay said.