Fire destroys Laoag City warehouse, Shamrock classrooms

 By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano

Staff reporters

LAOAG CITY—Under the scorching heat of the sun, firefighters from Laoag City and nearby towns help contain a razing fire traced inside a warehouse along the Gen. Segundo Ave., this city.

Fortunately, nobody was reported hurt.

Witnesses said the fire broke out Wednesday morning [May 6] at about 9:15 am in a warehouse of Motion Hardware.

Firefighters immediately issued a third alarm as it took firefighters more than two hours to beat the raging fire as the warehouse contains highly combustible materials including paints and acetylene.

Estimated costs of damages based on the assessment of the owner reached P500,000. The origin of the fire was traced from a welding activity.

F/Senior inspector Bonifacio Sacatrapos said the 1st to 3rd fire alarm was raised. This alarm prompts fire truck from nearby municipalities to respond.

The hardware warehouse is owned by Edward Chua and managed by Antonio Chua. It is being utilized as warehouse for variety of paints, varnish, PVC pipes of different sizes, c-purlins, reinforcing steel bars and other hardware materials.

Meanwhile, the Laoag Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said that for the first time, the well where they draw ground water is now running out of supply. Hence, they reiterated to Laoag residents to always observe fire safety particularly with rising temperatures this summer.

Record of the BFP shows that most of the affected during structural fires are residential areas.

Shamrock classrooms razed

ON May 8, a two-storey school building of Shamrock Elementary School was reported to be on fire by Brgy. 7B chairperson Glenn Agustin.

The fire which was reported at 11:51 pm, reached the fourth alarm as other fire trucks from other municipalities assisted the Laoag fire station in putting out the fire.

The fire was declared under control three hours later.

The school building is made mostly of concrete its flooring, stairs and wall, wood trusses, ceiling, room partition and door, GI sheet roofing, jalousie window with grills and used as Grade V classroom and store room of assorted informative books owned by the Dept. of Education.

Initial investigation conducted mentioned that building was being used as in-house training facility by different Grade IV public elementary school teachers of Ilocos Norte District I as part of their seven-day K to 12 program seminar which started on May 6 and was supposed to end on May 12. The seminar was conducted by the DepEd regional office.

No casualties or injuries were reported during the fire incident and the fire was controlled at 1:30 in the morning of May 9.

Sacatrapos said the cause and worth of damages is still under investigation and that they are presently collating evidences and interviewing witnesses, especially teachers who were billeted in the affected classrooms.

Meanwhile, Sacatrapos confirmed that Laoag has a total of 20 active fire hydrants but at this time, he admitted that some of them has low pressure maybe because of the summer season.