Photo courtesy of Jenny Gabi Mendez
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A portion of the filter section of the Davao Bay Coconut Oil Mills Inc. (DBCOM) in Panacan here, was gutted by fire early Friday morning, November 3 with the damage reaching to P33.6 million.
Senior Fire Officer 1 Ramil Gillado of the Bureau of Fire Protection Davao said the fire started after an oil leaked coming from a pipeline of the filter machine and dripped on the lamp which plant worker Jerome Gutierrez used to check the quality of oil passing on the sight glass.
Gillado in an interview on Saturday, November 4 said Gutierrez, the on-duty filter press operator, recounted that he saw a spark from the lamp before the fire started.
The fire started around 7:14 am but the BFP received the report at 7:25 a.m on the same day.
Gillado said a fire brigade inside the company tried to put out the fire, however, due to the flammability of the substance, the fire spread quickly.
DBCOM was incorporated as a subsidiary of Third Millennium Oil Mills Inc. (TMOMI) in May 2008. The plant supplies coconut oil to United States, Europe, China and other countries Asia.
Gillado said there was no reported casualty in the incident.
The fire in Panacan is the second incident this month. Some 81 families were also displaced after a fire hit a residential area in Buhangin here on November 1. (davaotoday.com)
