5 teens ram car into Clark gas station, trigger fire

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga, Philippines – Alert firemen prevented a PTT gasoline station here from blowing up after its pumping machines caught fire when a car driven by a 17-year-old girl rammed into them before dawn last Saturday.

Max Sangil, director of the Clark Development Corp. (CDC), said the girl and her passengers – four boys aged 16 to 17 – apparently belong to influential and “politically connected” families in Tarlac City.

In his complaint affidavit with the CDC’s public safety department, Martin Vitug, president and chief executive officer of Gold One that owns the PTT gas station, said he saw two of his “gas islands” on fire after he received a call from the operator of the gas station’s food court that a car had rammed into the pumping machines.

Gas station workers Hermie Panuncio and Rolando Hisite said they saw the car was speeding when it swerved to their establishment along the freeport’s main Roxas highway.

“The blaze was controlled after 25 to 30 minutes by the combined force of the CDC, the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Air Force, and Mimosa and Mabalacat fire stations,” Vitug said.

“The gas station could have blown up were it not for the immediate response of the firemen,” he said.

Vitug estimated the damage at P1 million, even as he lamented that his station has to remain closed for rehabilitation, causing “an income loss of P150,000 per day.”

“The total estimated preliminary damage to the station is P3 million,” he said, quoting estimates of an engineering team from Flying V.

Vitug said the car was a silver gray Mazda whose owner remained unknown as of yesterday. Investigators said the vehicle was totally burned, although its driver and passengers were unharmed.

Vitug said he filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property against the five teenagers, who fled the scene, according to a report of a CDC traffic investigator.

Nearly three hours after the incident, the teenagers surfaced for investigation, accompanied by Tarlac City Mayor Aro Mendoza and their parents.