Cavite declares state of calamity in wake of HTI factory fire

Cavite has declared a state of calamity in the wake of the fire that hit a huge factory at the Cavite Economic Processing Zone, Gov. Jesus Crispin Remulla said on Thursday afternoon.

"We are declaring a state of calamity and we were given the clearance by the Office of Civil Defense para we can reach out and help," Remulla said in an interview on "QRT."

The governor later said the province had enough funds and was no longer declaring a state of calamity to have access to calamity funds.

"No state of calamity. We will manage with our resources," Remulla said on Friday.

Remulla said there was a need to sustain the search and retrieval operations at the 60,000-square meter House Technology Industries (HTI) factory.

He expected the operation to last for at least a month.

"Ngayon ang kailangan i-sustain namin yung operations ng pulis to help them through, kasi we have to cut down the whole building piece by piece to find out kung meron tayong makikita," Remulla said.

"And it's not a one-day affair, baka umabot ng isang buwan yung retrieval operations kasi napalaking area," he added.

Remulla said rescue teams expect to start the search and retrieval operations on Friday morning as soon as the fire out is declared at the factory tonight.

"We are targeting fire out by tonight (Thursday). Hopefully malamig na ang grounds so by 7 a.m. puwede na magsimula ang retrieval and disaster victim identification in case may mahahanap tayo na namatay," Remulla said.

Based on initial information, the fire started with the power saw that malfunctioned around 5 p.m. on Wednesday. —NB, GMA News