A spark from a welder’s tool started a six-hour fire that gutted a two-story slipper factory in Valenzuela City before noon yesterday while more than a hundred employees were working.
A survivor said she heard a loud explosion before the fire spread on the second floor where more than 60 employees were working.
Relatives of the workers who were trapped inside the burning Kentex factory building burst into tears when Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian, quoting fire officials, revealed that none of those on the second floor survived.
Chemical and materials used in making slippers are reportedly stocked on the second floor of the building.
A relative of a factory worker rushed to the scene while Gatchalian was meeting with worried family members to relay a text message she received from a trapped relative that they were huddled on the second floor.
“This is the worst I’ve seen in my 27 years with the force,” Superintendent Crisfo Diaz, deputy director for operations of the National Capital Region Bureau of Fire Protection, told the Manila Bulletin.
More than 50 fire trucks and more than 300 firemen were dispatched to contain the fire that started at about 11 a.m. on the ground floor of the two-story building. It was placed under control at about 5 p.m.
“Mabilis ang pangyayari, bigla na lang sumiklab ang apoy (Everything happened so fast. Suddenly there was a big fire),” said Emma Sta. Agapa, 40, who survived.
Agapa said she was just a few meters away from where the fire started.
“Nagsimula lahat sa talsik ng welding. Sinubukan namin labanan, pero mabilis kumalat (The fire started from the spark of a welding tool. We tried to put out the fire but it spread fast),” she narrated.
Manila Bulletin
