THE city council will conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation to ascertain why it took firemen so long to put out the fire that gutted the second and third floors of the Maya Emporium and Merchandizing Store on A.B. Fernandez Avenue in Dagupan City.

It took more than 13 hours before combined firemen from Dagupan and other parts of Pangasinan as well as from as far as Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) to contain the blaze at the Indian-owned store.

The fire raged on from 1:15 p.m. Thursday and was only subdued at 2:00 a.m. Friday.

Firemen were still training their hoses on the burned establishment in the early morning of Friday.

Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez told the PUNCH the council will call on the city Fire Department to report its assessment of the fire so that remedial legislation can be adopted to prevent a similar event.

Firefighting was reportedly stalled by the inability of firemen to enter Maya Emporium’s second floor because its windows at the front and back, from where most of the smoke was coming out, were too narrow.

Firemen had to bore a hole in the building’s second floor to douse the blaze.

Witnesses said they saw sparks prior to the blaze at the second floor of the building where the store kept its stocks of computer, electronic parts and appliances.

The local fire station has yet to determine the cause of the blaze and the extent of the damages.

The fire department on Friday still could not yet make an estimate of the damages believed to run into millions of pesos since Maya Emporium is one of the most popular stores in the city.—LM

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