P5 M worth of garments burned in Muntinlupa fire

Some P5 million worth of property went up in smoke after a fire gutted a garments warehouse in Muntinlupa city Saturday night.

More than half of the building occupied by Great Effects Enterprises located within the Filcrest Compound at West Service Road, Barangay Cupang, was burned.

No one was injured in the blaze but so much was lost including sandblast machines, irons, dryers and other similar quipment.

Senior Fire Officer 1 Arnel Autencio, in an interview, said the fire started at around 10:30 p.m. somewhere between the canteen and the clinic.

"According to the initial results of our investigation, the fire started at a wooden partition wall but we still do not know what triggered it," he told The STAR.

The blaze, Autencio said, crawled up all the way to the mezzanine area, burning wood, clothes, and machines used for washing and dyeing.

The fire was put out an hour later with the help of firefighters from Las Piñas, Makati, Parañaque and the Chinese fire volunteers.

Probers initially placed the damage to property to P5 million.

Meanwhile, a two-year-old girl died while her mother was hurt in a fire that hit a squatters area at the back of the Central Fire Station along Agham Road in Quezon City yesterday afternoon.

The charred body of Geraldine Lusay was recovered at the rooftop of their two-story house. Her mother, Evelyn, was taken to the East Avenue Medical Center.

Reports said the blaze gutted 40 houses and affected 400 families. — With Katherine Adraneda