Pandacan fire damage to Skyway Stage 3, San Miguel plastic warehouse reaches P1.2B Pandacan fire damage to

The massive fire that gutted a warehouse in Pandacan, Manila and caused the collapse of a portion of the ongoing Skyway Stage 3 project last month has caused more than a billion pesos worth of damage to affected properties.

“Total damage to both the Skyway and packaging facility was estimated at P1.2 billion,” San Miguel Corp. said in a statement Thursday.

On February 1, fire broke out at San Miguel Yamamura Plastic Plant Corp. warehouse at Tomas Claudio Street, Pandacan and reached Task Force Bravo.

It also caused a portion of the currently under construction Skyway Stage 3 project to collapse. https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/metro/724435/portion-of-skyway-stage-3-collapses-due-to-pandacan-manila-fire/story/

“This has been a freak and very unfortunate accident, but we are glad that nobody was hurt. We are also grateful to everyone who responded, especially the BFP, the many volunteer firefighters, rescue teams from Manila, the Philippine National Police,” San Miguel president Ramon Ang said.

“While this is an unfortunate setback, we have moved quickly to get back on track with the construction. We are working double time to deliver the entire Skyway stage 3 project in five months’ time or by July. This is just a three-month delay from the original target date of April 2020,” Ang said.

Results of the investigation of the Bureau of Fire Protection found that the fire was due to “hot work” being done by a sub-contractor atop a steel beam.

Citing results of the BFP probe, San Miguel said fire started on coping beam 5 of the project, where workers of a sub contractor were conducting metal grinding and welding activities. 

The results also dismiss earlier initial findings that the fire originated outside the construction yard used by San Miguel contractor D.M. Consunji Inc.(DMCI).

San Miguel said fire investigators retrieved from the scene spent welding electrodes and a metal cutting disk or grinding tool, used by construction workers prior to the incident.

Hot metal embers or welding slag apparently came into contact with cartons and other combustible materials, starting the fire, it said. —LDF, GMA News