6 hurt in Sagada gas station fire

The gas station after the fire incident. Part of the photo shows the wooden wall of the ground floor where the gas tank is placed and the other part where the frontage  is located.

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE- Six  persons were injured when a gas station at sitio Nangonogan owned by a certain Marcial  Codangos caught fire here at sitio Nangonogan around 7 o’clock pm on June 11. 

    Fire marshal SFO3 Antonio Nalibsan said gas fumes caught fire sparks when a light switch was turned on
at the ground floor of the building.
    Nalibsan said the accidental fire happened just after the refilling of the gas tank located at the ground floor.
    Quick response from personnel from the Sagada Bureau of Fire immediately put off the fire  causing minor destruction at some parts of the building at the ground floor.    

    Those present at the vicinity earlier helped in putting off the fire using fire extinguishers.  

    Asked how the fire also burned the meter reading machine located on ground level along the road, Nalibsan said the tube connecting the machine from the gas tank showed openings which exposed fumes and caught fire.

    The fire incident which lasted for some 20 minutes and paralyzed traffic for some 30 minutes led to the injury of four drivers, the pump attendant and the owner of the gas station. Victims were immediately brought to the hospital by responding personnel from the municipal Police Station.   They suffered first to second degree burns and were admitted at the St Theodore’s Hospital.

    This tourist town has seven gas stations located in different parts of the locality, two in the central part of town, two in the southern zone with routes Suyo-Balili road and Sabangan-Sagada road via Taccong, one in the eastern side along the Dantay-Sagada national road, one in the northern side and one located along the Sagada-Besao road.

    Gas stations here suddenly increased in the recent few years after the first gas station at sitio Makamkamlis was established some years ago by the Sagada Consumers Cooperative.  

    One located along the Dantay Sagada Road at sitio Kiltepan was built with Petron franchise and design while the rest are privately owned with their own construction designs.

    Nalibsan said gas tanks should be buried underground including all tubes connected to gas meter reading machines. He also said exhaustion pipes should also be installed to let gas fumes travel out and not accumulate inside the gas station.