Fire rages at Zamboanga City copra processing plant


FIRE rages inside the Phidco copra processing plant in Zamboanga City that started Monday, June 28, and has been raging for more than 24 hours. (Zamboanga City LGU photo)
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- A fire continues to raze a warehouse inside a copra processing plant in Barangay Baliwasan here.

The conflagration started at around 11 p.m. Monday, June 28, and has been raging for more than 24 hours as of posting time.

Fire Chief Insp. Lucio Albarracin, city fire marshal, said the fire started in one of the equipment inside the compound.

The fire spread throughout the stockpile of 300 metric tons of copra and has become difficult to control due to burning oil products.

City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar rushed to the area Monday night to monitor the situation.

A traffic rerouting plan was put in place to allow uninterrupted movement of firefighters and their equipment and vehicles.

No casualty was reported as of posting time.

The fire was said to have been contained inside the compound.

The Phidco processing plant, a factory processing oil for soap products, is owned by a Chinese businessman.