Fire truck battling blaze nearly catches fire

By Ronilo L. Pamonag

A case of fighting fire with fire?

Firefighters during Wednesday night's blaze in Guanco Street in City Proper nearly found themselves having to contain two infernos at the same time.

A fire engine belonging to a volunteer brigade nearly caught fire while it was being used to put out the one-hour blaze that hit Marcial Building around 7 pm Wednesday.

Volunteer firefighters said that Fire Tower 9, which bore the marking 'Federation' along the sides of its retractable ladder, probably overheated or that there was some sort of a short circuit in its electrical system.

While thick smoke was bellowing out of the windows of the building that housed the now defunct Miraflor Fashion Academy, smoke also bellowed out from the cabin of the fire truck. Acrid smoke escaped through the open doors and windows of the cabin.

But it took a while before firefighters noticed that smoke was coming out of the fire engine.

About two or three volunteer firefighters were then seen climbing up the driver's side as the others trained their hoses.

The rest were, however, still focused on putting out the fire gutting the two-storey building, seemingly unaware of what had happened to Fire Tower 9.