Fire destroys historic Philippine post office that once housed Manila’s ‘grandest building’
- More than 80 fire trucks were sent to the decades-old Manila Central Post Office after the blaze broke out late on Sunday, the Bureau of Fire Protection said
- It took firefighters more than seven hours to get the inferno under control
A massive fire tore through Manila’s historic post office building overnight, slightly injuring one person and razing the nearly 100-year-old landmark in the Philippine capital, police and postal officials said on Monday.
The fire started before midnight in the basement of the neoclassical, five-storey building and was brought under control on Monday morning more than seven hours after it began, firefighters said.
An investigation was under way to determine the cause of the fire and what was damaged, officials said.
More than 80 fire trucks were sent to the decades-old landmark, the Bureau of Fire Protection said.
Thick, black smoke billowed hundreds of metres into the sky as flames gutted the neoclassical Manila Central Post Office that overlooks the Pasig River, and was situated on a main intersection of the capital’s key roads.