Search for missing Cavite fireworks factory workers on
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/30/2009 10:07 AM
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Retrieval teams on Friday morning resumed the search for 19 missing people at the blasted fireworks factory in Trece Martires City, Cavite province.
ABS-CBN correspondent Jenny Reyes reported that search teams resumed the retrieval and mopping up operations at the Star Maker fireworks factory in Barangay Conchu at 7 a.m.
Reyes said that according to police, 19 factory workers were still missing. As of Thursday night, police confirmed eight fatalities and 70 injuries in the powerful explosion that struck the fireworks factory at 10:45 a.m. Thursday.
Another ABS-CBN News report said that majority of the injured victims have been discharged and only five, two of them in critical conditions, remained confined at the Emilio Aguinaldo Medical Hospital.
Police said five of the recovered bodies from the factory would be subjected to DNA testing. This was after forensic experts failed to identify some of the bodies, which were ripped apart by the explosion.
‘Container bomb'
Police said that according to Ryan Lucero, area supervisor manager of the fireworks factory, the explosion could have come from a stock of explosives placed in a huge container.
Police ordnance experts said the explosion created three big craters inside the factory's compound.
Police also said its investigators are looking at statements of some residents living near the factory that the explosion was sparked by fireworks being tested the night before the blast.
The explosions were supposed to be used by SM Mall of Asia for its weekly fireworks display, police said.
Meanwhile, police said the owner of the fireworks factory may be charged with criminal and civil cases pending their investigation.
Police said the explosion's collateral damage alone was estimated at P3 million.
Investigators said the explosion also damaged the Cavite provincial capitol building, a newly-built hospital and several homes. Reports said several structures damaged by the explosion were kilometers away from the factory's compound.
