Road in front of Caloocan mall reopened to traffic

Following a scare last Friday due to falling debris from the second floor of a Caloocan City mall hit by a fire last year, authorities have reopened to traffic the road in front of the mall.

 

But city officials also cordoned off the front of the Grand Central Mall to protect motorists and pedestrians, radio dzBB reported early Sunday.

 

The report said the demolition of the mall is continuing and is 40 percent complete. It added the demolition may be completed June or July.

 

On Friday, tension gripped several vendors and passersby near the Grand Central Mall after parts of a wall in the mall's second floor fell to the ground below.

 

No one was initially reported hurt but vendors in the area ran for cover, even as the resulting tension snarled traffic in the area.

 

Construction workers cordoned off the mall, while the northbound part of Avenida Rizal Extension was temporarily closed to traffic.

 

In March 2012, a four-day fire razed the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City.

 

Smoke from the fire had briefly affected the operations of the Light Rail Transit Line 1's Monumento station. Authorities estimated at least 17 people, most of them firefighters, suffered injuries while battling the blaze.  — ELR, GMA News