Joint probe of fire in petrochemical plant begins

PETROCHEM BLAZE A fire hit the JG Summit Petrochemicals complex in Barangay Simlong, Batangas City, past 9 p.m. on Saturday, killing one person and injuring an undetermined number of persons. —BATANGAS FILIPINO CHINESE VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) has started investigation into Saturday’s fire at the petrochemical plant of the Gokongwei-led JG Summit Petrochemicals Group in Batangas City, which left one person dead.

The identity of the fatality, a resident of Barangay Simlong, remained unknown.

Reginald Dimacuha, secretary to the Batangas city mayor, said on Sunday that the BFP and the Batangas Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (DRRMC) had tagged the case “under investigation.”

In a statement to the Inquirer, JG Summit Petrochemicals Group said an undisclosed number of people working at the plant, “mostly contractors,” were injured and were being treated at Jesus of Nazareth Hospital in the city.

Isolated

The company did not mention the fatality. It said an “isolated” fire broke out around 9 p.m. on Saturday at its containment basin near the pier “and did not spread to the main manufacturing sites.”

It said its workers were immediately evacuated as the in-house emergency response team put the fire out.

Government and volunteer firefighters and the local police were not allowed to enter the company during the blaze and were told that there could be potentially harmful fumes, according to Lito Castro, chief of the Batangas DRRMC, and Police Col. Rex Malimban, Batangas police chief.

Monitor the area

But Malimban said in a phone interview that the fire might have reached a stockpile of “used oil.”

The company produces polyethylene and polypropylene resins.

“JG Summit Petrochemicals Group and the [BFP] continue to monitor the area and are currently conducting a joint investigation to identify the cause of the incident,” the company said.

In 2014, it had to temporarily shut down its operation after a machine broke down and caused a fire that sent clouds of smoke that lasted for a couple of days.

No one was reported hurt in the 2014 fire, but environmental and Church-based groups in Batangas have since taken the company to task for operating a naphtha cracker plant that could pose harm to the community.