Five pyro stalls burn in Toledo

CEBU - Some people never learn.Two years ago, a row of stalls selling firecrackers in the western city of Toledo, Cebu caught fire resulting to injuries. Yesterday five stalls selling firecrackers went up in smoke.

The fire reportedly started after an accidental throwing of a firecracker.

SFO2 Celso Berido of the Toledo Fire Station said that the fire started at around 11:50 in the morning and was put off two minutes after by the responding firemen.

Berido said that the fire was caused by an accidental throwing of a firecracker by a kid, who was playing near one of the stalls.

Berido said that the fire investigator SFO2 Constancio Alcover, the investigator of the incident reported that the lighted firecracker was accidentally thrown to the stall of a certain Tony Datumanung.

There were at least five stalls located at the back of the city engineering building and the bus terminal that were burned. 

The other stalls were reportedly owned by Roy Paco, Julieta Abellanosa, Teresita Causirin and a certain Catherine.

Berido said that no one was hurt in the incident. They however failed to get the name of the boy, because no one admitted as to who was playing near the stall of Datumanung.

The fire reportedly cost an estimated P290,000, which was how much the stall owners said their firecracker stocks were worth, said Berido.

Last December 2006, a sidewalk vendor’s display of firecrackers in Toledo City also exploded when a lighted cigarette was accidentally thrown.

The biggest pyrotechnic-related fire was also on December 2006 that killed 24 people in a department store in Ormoc. At least 21 were also injured.

The fire was also caused by a lighted firecracker accidentally thrown into one of the firecracker stalls located outside the store. —/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)