Public market severely damaged by fire because firefighters were sleeping and arrived late

Shouldn’t firefighters always be on their toes?

A public market in Manapla, Negros Occidental was severely damaged by a fire at 2am today and residents are blaming firefighters for not responding quickly enough.

They apparently only arrived at the scene more than an hour after the fire started, market vendors told radio station Bombo Radyo. This, even though the fire station is located nearby.

The fire station did not deny the lapse. SFO2 Frankie Guillen of the Manapla Bureau of Fire told Bombo Radyo that they did not notice the fire because all their firefighters who were on duty were sleeping.

His defense? The weather was cool, so the firefighters fell asleep. They’re just human after all, he said.

He said market vendors only went to the fire station at 3:20am and that they were unable to respond right away because they had to prepare their equipment.

Guillen told radio station RMN that the fire affected around 30 to 50 blocks of the market and that damages amounted to around PHP45 million (US$859,290.38).

Manapla’s Municipal Engineer Benjie Java said he would recommend Mayor Lourdes Escalante to close the market.

The Bureau of Fire said it will continue investigating what caused the fire.