Ormoc girl recounts escape from inferno

ORMOC CITY — She’s been through the fire but is determined to live.

Mitzinelle Gonzalez is a 20-year-old nursing student on the verge of graduating from the Cebu Doctors College. Her Christmas Day outing with her family turned into a nightmare when the Unitop department store on Real St. burned down.

Gonzalez had become the focus of media attention after footage of her clinging to a nearby building’s gutter for dear life while a man tried to get her to safety was broadcast nationwide.

In an interview at the hospital yesterday, Gonzalez recounted her ordeal and said she is determined to survive. Gonzalez spoke in a voice made raspy by a larynx infection caused by smoke inhalation.

She said she and her family had gone out to celebrate Christmas by touring the city in their car.

The Gonzalez family’s first stop was the city plaza, where they strolled together, enjoying some quality leisure time. They later decided to go to Unitop, as Gonzalez’s mother needed to buy medicines at the adjacent Mercury Drug outlet there.

Gonzalez said that while her mother was in the drugstore, her brothers Arnel Matthew and Arnel Mitchum got out of the car and went into Unitop and that she followed them into the store.

Just minutes after the entering the store, Gonzalez said, she heard the first of a series of explosions and she began to search for her brothers. She said she kept calm and kept her wits about her as she sought and called out to her brothers.

During her search, Gonzalez noticed thick, black smoke beginning to fill the front of the store and that several people had crammed into the store’s bathroom, where she had also run to in the belief that she would be safe.

However, the bathroom, too, caught fire. Gonzalez said she remembered seeing a man carrying a metal ladder through the people crammed in the bathroom and she asked him to set up the ladder so they could get to the building’s roof through a small skylight.

In a panic to escape the burning bathroom, people clambered over Gonzalez to get to the roof, she added, saying she had been kicked and knocked down several times before she was able to get out.

As the bathroom filled with noxious black smoke, a man had offered to let Gonzalez use his shoulder as a ladder to the skylight, she said. She also said she was able to get a grip on a fluorescent light fixture on the ceiling before she was hoisted to the roof, even as other people yanked at her legs so they, too, would be pulled out.

The escape from the blaze, she said, was one that had taken all of her strength.

From the roof of the Unitop building, Gonzalez scaled high walls to get to the roof of the Sugarland Pensione House. She said she had been calling for her parents at the top of her voice so they would know she was alive.

Moving from rooftop to rooftop to the four-story Sky Garden Pension House, Gonzalez scaled the building’s gutter to get back to the ground, with the help of two people who caught her when she slipped.

Despite this ordeal, Gonzalez said she wants to live for her parents’ sake, especially because she fears that her brothers perished in the fire after she failed to find them.

Additional raps filed vs Unitop

Meanwhile, additional charges were filed against the owners and executives of Unitop General Merchandising for the death of 26 people and injuries to several others in the Christmas Day fire that gutted the store, which had been selling firecrackers without a license.

Senior Superintendent Elmer Asumbrado, chief of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in the Eastern Visayas, said reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and multiple physical injuries charges were filed against Ricardo Lim Brieto and Kenneth Tan, owner and operations manager of the establishment, respectively.

"Investigators have established, concrete evidence to hold Brieto and Tan liable for the deaths and injuries of the (fire) victims," Asumbrado said in an interview.

He said a copy of the BFP Eastern Visayas’ report and charge sheet will be submitted to BFP headquarters in Quezon City today.

Ormoc City police chief Senior Superintendent Manuel Cubillo earlier said charges of violation of Republic Act 7183, or the law penalizing the illegal manufacture and sale of firecrackers, were filed against Brieto and Tan.

Cubillo said records indicate that Brieto is a naturalized Filipino citizen of Chinese origin, while Tan is a Chinese national with a working visa.

He added that Brieto is the sole proprietor of Unitop and that he has a number of personnel managing the business who may be included in the charge sheet.

BFP officials said there was apparent negligence on the part of Unitop personnel who padlocked the store’s exits, preventing the people trapped inside the store from escaping to safety as flames engulfed the store.

Besides the homicide and physical injuries charges, the Unitop owner, executives and personnel may face charges of violating the Building Code of the Philippines.

The authorities have stopped searching for bodies from the burned down store on Real St. as arson investigators said that, as of Tuesday night, the fatalities include a pregnant woman, a child and two infants.

The Ormoc City police, BFP and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have been working together in an effort to establish the cause of the Christmas Day blaze.

"We hope to establish more evidence to support the filing of charges," Cubillo said. "Initially, we already have the statements of survivors and witnesses. We hope to conclude our investigation as soon as possible."

BFP spokesman Chief Inspector Renato Marcial said survivors of the fire said the other victims could have gotten out of the burning building had the other exits not been padlocked.

"They said they were afraid of thieves, that is why they locked the exits," Marcial said, referring to Unitop’s owner and management personnel. "They should have hired security guards to secure their merchandise. In trying to save money, they just settled for locking the doors instead of hiring security guards. Now much more has been lost."

Marcial said the store’s owner will pay for the burial of the victims who were killed and for the medical expenses of the victims who survived the blaze.

"The incident in Ormoc should serve as a lesson to everybody, not only to firecracker manufacturers and retailers, but buyers as well," Marcial said. "We can avoid such accidents if we know the safety rules."

Reports showed that a boy lit a piccolo firecracker, which landed on a pile of firecrackers being sold there.

"Manufacturers should ensure that their products are safe, while retailers must ensure that the firecrackers are stored in safe places and sell them in open spaces," Marcial said. "Buyers must be careful and observe safety measures while buying firecrackers. — Roberto Dejon and Cecille Suerte Felipe