BOCAUE, Bulacan–A series of powerful blasts rocked a row of fireworks stores along McArthur Hiighway in Barangay Biniang 1st here at 10:45 a.m. yesterday, killing two people and hurting 25 others.
Confirmed dead were Gina Gonzales, 47, owner of the Gina Gonzales Fireworks, a relative of former Bocaue mayor Lorenzo Gonzales, and ex-barangay chairperson Gigi Ayala, 60, of Brgy. Biniang 1st.
Police investigators scrambled at the explosion site to search for three more missing persons reported by relatives to Bocaue policemen. At least 10 vehicles were burned, according to police reports.
Bocaue Mayor Joni Villanueva, who claimed she was just a kilometer away when the explosion happened, said the blast started at the Gina Gonzales Fireworks then leaped over across a row of four pyrotechnics stalls which triggered the successive explosions.Most of those injured suffered second to third degree burns but one of them was already critical after being brought to the Yanga’s Emergency Hospital for first aid treatment. The unidentified male victim was later brought to the Jose Reyes Memorial Hospital along Rizal Avenue in Manila.
Six of those injured were identified as Arnold Co, Jeff Abayan, Michael Navarro, Erlinda Fariñas, Estephanie Espina and Edgar Ducat.
Bocaue police arson probers who interviewed some witnesses to the powerful explosion said at first they saw smoke then fire coming out of the warehouse owned by Gonzales.
Ramon Lazaro, a newsman from Bocaue said the blast was so powerful that a three-hour brownout gripped the entire town after the blast.
The blast was so massive that at least a half-square kilometer radius along McArthur Highway was almost levelled to the ground. Mina Dionisio, a secretary at the law office of Peter Gonzales, cousin of the victim’s husband, Oman, said the entire window glasses inside a kilometer radius were shattered.
Acting Bulacan police director Senior Supt. Romeo Caramat Jr., said the police are still investigating the exact cause of the blast. Close to 40 adjoining commercial establishments and houses were destroyed. Authorities estimated the damage at some P20 million.
The Philippine Pyrotechnics Manufacturers and Dealers Association Inc., said that most of the stores in Bgy. Biniang 1st and in Bgy. Turo are licensed and have complied with the safety training seminars being required by the PNP-Civil Security Group before they can be issued with license and permits to sell.
It was learned that most of the stall owners in the area have been selling pyrotechnics for more than three decades and have undergone safety training seminars of the PPMDAI and the PNP-CSG before the explosion happened.
This was the first major explosion to hit Bocaue in six years. In 2009 and 2008, rows of fireworks stores in Bgy. Turo were also rocked by powerful explosion that both happened on New Year’s Eve.