After battling the fire for two and a half days, fire fighters on Wednesday morning finally put out the blaze that razed a shopping center in Pasay City.
The fire broke out inside Baclaran Terminal Plaza 1 Sunday evening and halted the operations of Light Rail Transit (LRT) Baclaran station, which is adjacent the burning mall.
Fire fighters were able to put out the flames only on Wednesday around 8:30 a.m. Normal operations in LRT have also resumed Wednesday.
The Bureau of Fire Protection said lack of equipment and thick smoke that accumulated inside the shopping center had prevented them from immediately extinguishing the blaze.
"Ang content ng mall ay RTWs (ready-to-wear clothes). ‘Pag ‘yon nasunog, ‘yong baga at smoke niya toxic," said Chief Inspector Junito Maslang, the city's fire marshal.
"Mahirap ma-penetrate because of the fire equipment… breathing apparatus kulang," Maslang added.
The LRT Authority (LRTA) earlier raised concerns over the successive fires near its stations, citing the effects of such incidents to its revenue and to the rail system itself.
As of Monday, the Baclaran fire has cost LRTA P400,000, or equivalent to 25 percent of its declared losses in year 2007. A week before, they have lost an estimated P700,000 after a fire near the LRT station in Sta. Cruz, Manila.
On July 17, another fire struck at a mall near the LRT station in Libertad, also in Pasay. Hundreds of thousands of pesos in revenues were also lost during that day.
But more than the losses, the LRTA said it is concerned about passenger safety since the successive fires that took place near their stations could compromise the integrity of their system and structures.
In the first eight months of this year, six fires have taken place beside LRT stations, two of which were in Pasay.