3 dead, 3 hurt in 5-hour Caloocan fire

MANILA, Philippines - Three stay-in workers were killed while three others were injured after a factory burned down in a fire that raged for five hours in Caloocan City yesterday morning.

City fire marshal Chief Inspector Roel Jeremy Diaz said the fire hit the two-story factory of the RM Promo and Display Corp. on Tullahan Road in Santa Quiteria at around 1:40 am. yesterday.

The factory, which makes supermarket display racks and shelves, is owned by Rolando Martinez, who told arson investigators his firm lost P10 million in the fire.

Diaz identified the dead as Jolas Facundo, Harry Domingo and Eduardo Goromio.

Senior Fire Officer 4 Randy Resurreccion said Geromio was burned beyond recognition and the two others were badly burned. Their bodies have been taken for autopsy.

The injured, known only as “William”, “Ninoy” and “Aris Astero”, were taken to the Chinese General Hospital in Manila for severe burns and smoke inhalation. Resurreccion said that Henry and William sustained “critical burns” all over their body while Astero also has “serious burns but could still move around.”

Diaz said the victims could have been overwhelmed by the thick smoke and those killed were burned alive where they fell.

SFO2 Zoilo Crisostomo, officer-on-case, said they gathered from witnesses that Facundo, Astero and Domingo reportedly had gone out of their quarters before the fire spread there but went back for the cellphones they left in the rush to get out. The phones were reportedly new and still being paid on installment.

Geromio’s body was recovered near his locker on the second floor while the bodies of Facundo and Domingo were found near their lockers on the ground floor.

Company guards told Crisostomo the fire broke out from the stockroom on the ground floor, some 40 meters away from the victims’ quarters. The blaze quickly swallowed the stockroom, which contained drums of paint and thinner and other highly flammable materials used by the firm in its operation.

He was also told the workers heard an explosion before the fire. The real cause of the fire is still being determined.

Arson investigator SFO2 Arvin David said they are verifying reports that a drinking spree the night before may have had something to do with the pre-dawn fire that was declared out at 6:20 a.m. yesterday.