Up to 100 hurt in Cavite factory fire

(UPDATED) As of midnight of Thursday, there are between 80 and 100 HTI workers being treated in various hospitals around Rosario town, where the Cavite Export Processing Zone is located

Rappler.com, Feb. 2, 2017

CAVITE, Philippines (UPDATED) – Dozens were reported injured in an evening fire that hit a factory in an export processing zone in Cavite, south of Metro Manila, on Wednesday, February 1.

As of posting, an undetermined number of workers are reportedly still trapped inside the House Technology Industries building, but authorities won’t confirm the information.

Cavite Governor Jesus Crispin Remulla told Rappler over the phone that the fire broke on Wednesday at around 6 pm, just as the workers had changed shifts.

Local authorities said the fire was under control at around 11:30 pm.

Remulla said that, as of midnight of Thursday, there are between 80 and 100 HTI workers being treated in various hospitals in the cities and towns around Rosario, where the Cavite Export Processing Zone is located. (LIST: Workers injured in Cavite export processing zone fire)

The HTI facility, where housing materials for export to Japan are manufactured, occupies 6 hectares in the Cavite EPZA. The biggest group of companies in the processing zone, it has 6,000 workers and has been considered by local governments as the best employer here. The hospitals where the injured workers were brought to, in fact, have tie-ups with HTI.

20 of the 53 people who were brought to the the Divine Grace Medical Center in the neighboring city of General Trias are in a critical condition, according to Michael del Rosario, whose family owns the hospital.