KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/27 September) – Faulty wiring might have caused a fuel truck to catch fire while heading towards Pagalungan town in Maguindanao, around 730 p.m. on Saturday, reports said.
Lt. Col. Domingo Gubuay, commander of the 7th Infantry Battalion, said vehicles tailing the truck along the highway in Kabacan, North Cotabato saw smoke and fire at its rear portion.
The vehicles tried to overtake the fuel truck to warn the driver but the truck was running on high speed, Gubuay said.
While heading towards Pagalungan, the truck driver sensed something was wrong with his vehicle and jumped out upon seeing the flame.
He tried to put out the fire but to no avail. Minutes later, the truck burst into flames.
Gubuay’s men were the first to arrive at the fire scene and immediately established roadblocks along the highway and prevented vehicles from passing through as they might also catch fire.
Fire trucks from different towns came to the rescue but the blaze only grew bigger each time water was sprayed on it, the Army official said.
The fire was only put out when the fire truck owned by Dole-Stanfilco based in Makilala town,vNorth Cotabato arrived at the scene.
Supt. Joseph Semillano, chief of Kabacan police, said the fire truck used a special sprayer to extinguish the fire.
The Pagalungan-Cotabato highway was only reopened to vehicles around 2 a.m. on Sunday, Gubuay said.
Fire authorities will release its report on the incident to the media anytime this week.
The truck came from Surigao City and was bound for Cotabato City. (Malu Cadelina Manar/MindaNews)