4 injured in Makati restaurant blast
Published Jan 3, 2020 12:00 am
By Jel Santos
The Chinese restaurant that exploded because of a gas leak in Makati City has a fire safety inspection certificate only for year 2017, the Bureau of Fire and Protection-Makati (BFP) disclosed on Friday afternoon.
(Photo courtesy of Makati Police/ MANILA BULLETIN)
On Thursday night, four Chinese nationals were injured after a blast at the restaurant in Barangay San Antonio, Makati at around 8:40 p.m. Yue Qzang Cao, 45, one of the victims, is still in the intensive care unit of Makati Medical Center for second degree burns while Liang Zhang, 37; Ting Tang, 26; and Long Liun Yun, 27, are still recuperating at the same hospital for the injuries they sustained.
All of the victims are Chinese nationals. Two of them are employees of the restaurant--Cao and Zhang, both kitchen helpers. The others were passersby.
Inspector Eduardo Labrador, BFP Makati Investigation Unit chief, said that the only BFP fire safety inspection certificate of the Judianchuanba Restaurant was dated 2017.
“We only found a 2017 fire safety inspection certificate on the wall of the restaurant. We did not find the 2018 and 2019 certificates there,” he said.
He said that they are still in the process of checking whether the place underwent fire safety inspection in 2018 and 2019.
The BFP-Makati also found out that the establishment has no gas leak detector, which is required by law.
“Definitely, they violated the Fire Code, because their LPG piping system should have a gas leak detector,” he said
Labrador said that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak in the piping system of the restaurant, saying liquefied petroleum gas filled the restaurant that’s why the explosion was very strong.
“The cause of the explosion was a gas leak in the piping system which was ignited by either electricity or fire. We found cigarettes butts and lighter inside the kitchen of the restaurant. They were also cooking something on the stove,” he said in an interview Friday afternoon.
The debris were thrown 20 meters away from the restaurant because of the strong explosion, he added.
Based on our investigation, the cause is in the piping system, LPG nasa labas, siguro nagkaroon ng leak
The investigators, according to Labrador, learned from the employees of the restaurant that the establishment was really owned by a Chinese national and not a Filipino as declared in the documents.
“We learned from the employees that the owner was not Kins Piloto Medina, a Filipino, but a Chinese national. They are very certain that the restaurant is owned by a Chinese national. We will study what will be the necessary actions we would take against them,” he said.
Labrador said that BFP-Makati may coordinate with the Immigration to alert them should the Chinese national try to flee.
“As of now, we still don’t have his identity, but we will determine who he is,” he said.
Labrador said the damage at the Chinese restaurant was pegged at P180, 000.
(Photo courtesy of Makati Police/ MANILA BULLETIN)
On Thursday night, four Chinese nationals were injured after a blast at the restaurant in Barangay San Antonio, Makati at around 8:40 p.m. Yue Qzang Cao, 45, one of the victims, is still in the intensive care unit of Makati Medical Center for second degree burns while Liang Zhang, 37; Ting Tang, 26; and Long Liun Yun, 27, are still recuperating at the same hospital for the injuries they sustained.
All of the victims are Chinese nationals. Two of them are employees of the restaurant--Cao and Zhang, both kitchen helpers. The others were passersby.
Inspector Eduardo Labrador, BFP Makati Investigation Unit chief, said that the only BFP fire safety inspection certificate of the Judianchuanba Restaurant was dated 2017.
“We only found a 2017 fire safety inspection certificate on the wall of the restaurant. We did not find the 2018 and 2019 certificates there,” he said.
He said that they are still in the process of checking whether the place underwent fire safety inspection in 2018 and 2019.
The BFP-Makati also found out that the establishment has no gas leak detector, which is required by law.
“Definitely, they violated the Fire Code, because their LPG piping system should have a gas leak detector,” he said
Labrador said that the cause of the explosion was a gas leak in the piping system of the restaurant, saying liquefied petroleum gas filled the restaurant that’s why the explosion was very strong.
“The cause of the explosion was a gas leak in the piping system which was ignited by either electricity or fire. We found cigarettes butts and lighter inside the kitchen of the restaurant. They were also cooking something on the stove,” he said in an interview Friday afternoon.
The debris were thrown 20 meters away from the restaurant because of the strong explosion, he added.
Based on our investigation, the cause is in the piping system, LPG nasa labas, siguro nagkaroon ng leak
The investigators, according to Labrador, learned from the employees of the restaurant that the establishment was really owned by a Chinese national and not a Filipino as declared in the documents.
“We learned from the employees that the owner was not Kins Piloto Medina, a Filipino, but a Chinese national. They are very certain that the restaurant is owned by a Chinese national. We will study what will be the necessary actions we would take against them,” he said.
Labrador said that BFP-Makati may coordinate with the Immigration to alert them should the Chinese national try to flee.
“As of now, we still don’t have his identity, but we will determine who he is,” he said.
Labrador said the damage at the Chinese restaurant was pegged at P180, 000.