Fire knocks down Granex Manufacturing Corporation Copra Warehouse
Iligan City
–May 20/13 After 44 years of Granex Manufacturing Corporation fire fighters battled the fire that knocked down the copra warehouse of Granexport Manufacturing Corp. at Barangay Kiwalan, Iligan city.
Granex Manufacturing Corporation is the biggest coconut oil mill in the world. Granex produces crude oil and coco pellet.
The fire started at around 5:00 pm May 20/13 and it was still smoldering at around 10 am the following morning May 21/13.
Containing more or less 70 thousand metric tons of copra it took about 25 fire trucks from neighboring towns and cities to respond with the fire call that had reached to a general alarm.
Meanwhile people living near the plant were advised to evacuate their homes and go at least 2 kilometers away from the scene of the fire as a safety precaution for fear that fire may spread towards the Hexane Tank and cause an explosion.
In the meantime out-going Mayor Lawrence Ll.Cruz from Manila gave a standing order for the Local Government officials of Iligan to support the needs of the fire fighters who had responded on fire call and for the CSWD to be prepared and ready to aid and give shelter to those displaced families and workers of Granex Corporation.
Immediately 3 shelters were prepared and were identified for the displaced families.
Lafarge Cement factory conference room who had accommodated 62 families and 1,470 individuals; Donald Moraza Multi-purpose Building at Dalipuga had 42 individuals and 106 families; Purok 13 Quarry 138 individuals and 417 dependent;
The following morning of May 22/13- SFINSP Glen Chua- Ozamis Marshal and FO1 Reymondo T. Magallanes from Tubod Lanao del Norte Fire station who was battling the blaze at Granex copra warehouse suffered from 2nd degree burns. Both were taken immediately to a hospital.
Through an interview this morning at around 10:00 am with former Barangay Councilor of Kiwalan, Inocencio Pobadora who is also a retired employee of Granex says "Fire is manageable as of this time although still there is yet no declaration on fire control from SFO4 Edmund Batoy- BFP (Bureau of Fire Protection) Iligan." Asked on how the present situation could affect workers of Granex? "It would not affect much the workers since the company is insured" he answered." And soon as company will be rehabilitated operation will be back to normal" he added.
Meanwhile Barangay Captain of Kiwalan Antonio Alon stated that although fire is manageable right now we still will remain vigilant. Barangay Captain Alon added "Fire may last for 4-5 days since fire fighter are dealing with "copra's" which is a type of oil element." Over an interview.
Rough estimation of damages may reach to 220 Billion pesos.
Irma S. Boza/Babcock International News
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