Dagupan ’cracker blast kills 2; tight curbs set
DAGUPAN CITY—Just three days after the city government and police launched a citywide campaign against firecrackers, an explosion on Christmas Day ripped through a two-story house illegally used as a firecracker repacking area in Barangay Bacayao Norte, killing two passersby and injuring eight others.
Police reports showed that a 7-year-old girl died at the scene, while a 21-year-old female student from Binalonan town was declared dead on arrival at the Region I Medical Center here. Except for the student, all the victims were residents of the barangay.
In a phone interview on Friday, Police Col. Orly Pagaduan, city police director, said authorities were still determining who among of the adult victims were workers at the illegal warehouse.
Some of the victims, he said, were merely passing through the area on their way to a party at a nearby house, including the 7-year-old fatality.
Initial information indicated that the child was with her mother and 5-year-old brother at the time of the blast at around 8 p.m. Both relatives sustained minor injuries. The student, meanwhile, was reportedly in the area to get a haircut.
Pagaduan said the explosion also destroyed two motorcycles, while six other motorcycles and two tricycles parked near the house were damaged by falling debris, including roofing materials.
Multiple charges
Police were set to file multiple criminal cases against the 52-year-old owner of the house turned into a warehouse to repack firecrackers.
The charges include reckless imprudence resulting in homicide for the deaths of the two victims, reckless imprudence resulting in multiple injuries and damage to property, and violation of Republic Act No. 7183, which regulates the manufacture, sale, distribution, and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics.
Pagaduan said the house owner did not sustain injuries and initially went to a hospital but discharged himself.
“We later located him in the vicinity and brought him back to the hospital for further medical tests,” he said.
Pagaduan added that the number of injured residents brought to hospitals has risen to eight, from four initially reported.
He recalled that last November, city police raided a makeshift hut in the same barangay and seized explosive materials, tools, equipment and firecrackers. No operator or workers were found during that operation.
Earlier crackdown
This marks the second explosion involving an illegal fireworks warehouse in the city this year. The first occurred in Barangay Tebeng last November, where a worker was killed and several houses were damaged.
To intensify enforcement, Pagaduan said the police will launch “Oplan Bandillo” starting Saturday, involving house-to-house inspections in villages as part of the campaign against illegal firecrackers.
“This will be a house-to-house effort to ferret out illegal firecrackers,” he said.
The city government has also designated a specific area for firecracker and fireworks vendors. Those selling outside the designated zone will be apprehended, Pagaduan added.
