RESEARCH STUDY ON THE KENTEX FACTORY FIRE

A Class Research Study Presented to the Public Safety Administration

Department, Philippine National Police Academy, Camp Castañeda, Silang
Cavite

In Partial Compliance of the Requirements with the Performance Tasks on

the Subject of Fire Code of the Philippines (RA 9514)

September 2021

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

TITLE PAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

INTRODUCTION ........................ .............. 3

a. Introduction and Background of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

b. Significance of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 4
 c. Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND

STUDIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

a. Related Local Literatures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 – 7

b. Related Local Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 – 9

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS,

AND RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

a. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
b. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
c. Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

a. Documentary Photos of the Incidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 – 16

CURICULUM VITAE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 - 20

Background of the Study

The Philippines continues to experience disastrous fires, often marking

some of the worst fire incidents in history. In all cases, buildings were totally
burned or destroyed, huge amounts of investment went up in smoke in a matter
of hours and those who were lucky enough to escape and survive suffered the
tragedy of losing their jobs, their source of income and livelihood. IFSEC(2021)

Fast forward to the present-day scenario, the Philippines remains washed

up in fighting fire, if not preventing it from happening. It was not only the searing
memories of screaming voices and flashing flames that awakened Terrence King
Ong, the operations manager of Kentex Manufacturing Corporation, in the
Philippines, who was hospitalized with third-degree burns after the May 13, 2015,
fire at his factory. It was grief for his son, Tristan, who died while helping workers
escape. He grieved as well for the employees who did not make it out. Indeed,
his imaginings of their unanswered pleas for help made him break down in tears.
He humbly appealed to the public, “Please forgive me. Give me another chance.”

Seventy-two workers, many of whom were women, were burned to death

and 20 more are still missing in the biggest factory fire that hit the Philippines –
the fire that gutted the factory of Kentex Manufacturing Incorporated last May 13,
2015. The company, located along Tatalon Street in Barangay Ugong in
Valenzuela City, manufactures rubber slippers for sale and distribution in various
parts of the Philippines. ILRF(2015)

The aftermath was grim. The tragedy was not unprecedented. In 1975, a
wig factory burned down and killed 42 workers in Manila, the capital of the
Philippines.4 The worst case recorded in the country was the Ozone Disco fire in
a Manila suburb, which claimed 150 lives in 1996. WDI(2015)

Significance of the Study

The importance of the study is to learn and accustom ourselves about fire
safety wherein when fire isn’t carefully managed it is extremely hazardous. In the
right conditions, flames and smoke can spread rapidly and cause considerable
damage to people, property and the environment. Fires can be accidentally or
intentionally started, but once alight the heat and poor visibility can make it
difficult for people to escape or fight the flames. Fire can be dangerous. Not only
can it destroy property, but it can take lives. The potential for fire in the workplace
is not something to take lightly.

Definition of Terms

Fire- combustion or burning, in which substances combine chemically with

oxygen from the air and typically give out bright light, heat, and smoke.
Fire Incident- A major fire incident is defined as an incident involving smoke,
heat, and. flames causing property damage to multiple building fixtures or
fittings.
Factory- a building or group of buildings where goods are manufactured or
assembled chiefly by machine.
Safety- freedom from harm or danger : the state of being safe.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND STUDIES

Fire has many properties which make it beneficial to life. The ability to
manage fire has been credited as one of the key points in the success of humans
as a species. When we think of uses for fire, our first thoughts are for cooking
and heating, but it has also played an important role in managing the natural
landscape, propulsion and signaling. Surefire(2021)

The nature of the Kentex fire deaths raised questions about the standards
of fire safety at the factory. Some workers survived only by jumping out of the
building. But many victims were blocked by window grills and locked exit doors.
One survivor had to use a metal object to destroy the lock on the fire exit. Days
after the incident, authorities ruled that three victims died of asphyxia. All the rest
were found charred, identifiable only through their personal belongings and
laboratory analysis. The Kentex tragedy naturally demanded accountability. But
for over one week there was speculation that the owners and managers had fled
the Philippines. This speculation was fueled by their absence from hearings and
investigations organized by the Philippine House of Representatives and the
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Kentex manufactured flip-flops and sandals. The factory that burned

began operating in 2014. Kentex was headquartered in Caloocan City and the
factory was in a contiguous city, Valenzuela, in the Ugong district, where big
industrial establishments commonly located themselves. About 43
establishments were near the Kentex factory at the time of the fire,15 23 of which
were determined to be unsafe.
Reasons Fire Safety Training Is So Important: Recognizing the fire hazards
when it comes to fire safety training, one of the most important elements is
understanding what poses a fire risk and what is deemed a fire hazard.
Being able to properly identify what is deemed a fire hazard is crucial to
understanding how to best prevent them, to begin with. Preventing fire in the
workplace is obviously the best way to stop them from becoming a major
problem. A fire can ignite when a sufficient heat source makes contact with
something that is flammable. Thus, teaching the workforce what can cause
these issues in the workplace is critical to preventing fires in it. Fire Risk
Assessment. When you are implementing fire safety training, you need to
look at the workplace from an outside perspective to really see what needs
to be done to prevent a fire, to let everyone know what to do in the event of a
fire, and to figure out where everyone should go in case a fire breaks out.
This particular type of assessment is one of the most important things to
conduct in the workplace to really identify what poses increased risk of a fire,
what people are going to be at the highest risk if a fire does occur, how to
make improvements to boost fire safety all around and how to stop fires from
spreading if one does happen to occur.
 Prevention, this is perhaps the most significant element of fire safety
training because it is going to help the workers know and understand how to
effectively prevent fires from ever occurring in the first place as mentioned
above. If the workers throughout the building are adequately prepared to
prevent fires from the beginning, they are going to be able to reduce the total
risk of a fire from ever starting. Also, they will be much better suited to
preventing fires from spreading and taking out the entire building. There are
a lot of different things that workers should be taught in order to effectively
prevent fires from happening including keeping the workplace and wiring
clean, avoiding overloading circuits, keeping machinery clean and dry,
avoiding faulty wiring or having exposed wires present, and more. All of
these things are going to be important for the entire workforce to know and
understand to avoid common causes of a fire.
How To Effectively Respond. Your workforce should be fully trained
and aware of how they should be responding to a fire if it were to break out.
It is crucial to have everyone on the same page when it comes to responding
to a fire. They need to not only know what they should be doing if it were to
happen, but they will also need to have adequate practice on working
together to stop it from spreading and advancing. Through this type of
training, your workers should practice the drills with other members, figure
out the emergency plan and route, know and understand how to activate the
fire alarm, where to go if a fire were to start in specific areas of the building,
and more. Knowing all of the important details involving a fire is crucial for
the safety of everyone in the building. Overall, there are a lot of reasons why
fire safety training is such an important thing to have in the workplace.
Everyone should know what to do when and if a fire were to start and how to
prevent them from ever occurring. By getting your workforce adequate
training, it can improve the safety of your entire workforce and your building.

Working conditions
Kentex Manufacturing Corporation is owned by Mr. Beato Ang and Mr.
Ong King Guan.   Apart from the clear violations of occupational health and
safety standards, worker survivors in Kentex also reported violations of general
labor standards, contrary to the claims made by the Labor Department.S
Only workers who served for 20-25 years in the company are considered
“regular” workers, while those who have been working for an average of 10 years
are considered “casual” workers. These regular and casual workers comprise a
minority of the workforce and receive only the minimum wage despite having
worked for the company for many years. Workers say that the union is a
“company union” with around 30 members.
There are more than 100 workers out of the less than 200 workers who
were hired by the CGC agency and were receiving only a daily wage of P202
plus P187 to P220 daily allowance, depending on the number of years of service.
Agency workers also complain that they discovered that the CGC agency did not
remit their SSS, Philhealth and PAG-IBIG contributions and that whenever they
complain, the agency would only return their contributions instead of enrolling
them in the said mandatory social benefits.
Workers also complain that they have to bear the heat inside the factory during
work hours as there is no proper ventilation in the factory. They claim that they
get tired of work not because of the heavy workload but because of the heat
inside the factory premises.
Apart from the daily-paid casual workers who were hired by the manpower
agency, there were also workers who were hired on “pakyawan” or piece-rate
basis. These workers work for 12 hours a day without formal contract. Mary Ann
Tenis, 30 years old and a single parent of three children, was one of the victims.
Her youngest was just nine-month old, according to a friend who was waiting for
news about her friend. Tenis had worked for Kentex for five months and was
hired as a piece-rate worker.
Almost an entire family was burned to death, with both parents working for
Kentex and their three high-school children taking a summer job in the factory.
The tragedy orphaned a child enrolled in primary school.
The victims’ families say that they lost their loved ones and their bread winners in
the fire. They are pained by their relatives’ death and they are pained by the
difficulty in identifying the bodies of their loved ones and giving them a proper
burial. They are anxious about what the future holds, thinking of how they can
support family members who were left behind.
Firefighting is a very risky business. But Filipino firefighters are among the
bravest in battling blazes. Despite lacking in firefighting equipment, they are
known to charge toward burning buildings while others scamper for safety.
Sometimes, firefighters themselves are seriously injured, or killed, while doing
their jobs. This seldom happens, thanks to proper training.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), the primary agency responsible for
fire prevention and fighting fire, is one of the most undermanned government
agencies created for the gargantuan task of preventing fire, if not fighting fires
when they do happen.

The BFP’s annual appropriations also fall beyond what can be described
as “desirable”. In 2017, total new appropriations for the BFP is slightly less than
P13 million.The majority of this budget, about P11 million, is for personnel
services, meaning salary and allowances of its personnel. The BFP’s funds last
year also went to maintenance and other operating expenses (P1.5 million). Only
P543,606 was set aside as capital outlay.

The budget was for the 24,095 men and women of the BFP.Of this total
number of personnel, 1,086 are officers with the rank of Fire Inspector up to
Director. Non-uniformed personnel, those who perform clerical or office-based
duties, numbered to about 416.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATION
A. Summary
Kentex is a small manufacturer of flip flops and other rubber shoes located
in Valenzuela City, a northern suburb of Manila, Philippines. It is one of many
similar businesses serving the local market in a poor area of town.
On May 13, 2015, a fire broke out when welding sparks ignited chemicals being
stored near the entrance of the Kentex Manufacturing factory. It is possible,
although unconfirmed, that the weld was being performed on the doors of one of
the main entrances to the building. Thick, black smoke engulfed the building as
rubber and chemicals burned. The fire spread quickly and few people escaped.
Unable to leave, trapped workers retreated to the second floor and attempted to
call relatives for help.
It took five hours for the fire department to get the blaze under control. The fire
left the building unstable, causing a delay in the retrieval of the dead while
engineers secured the building.

B. Conclusion
The factory compound had NO fire exits and there were only two gates,
one is for people and the other is for delivery trucks. The factory windows
are covered with steel grills and chicken wire which could not easily be
destroyed even during emergencies. There are Absence of proper smoke
and fire alarm and apparent absence of fire and safety drill among the
workers. These are clear violations of Rules on alarm and fire drills. Rule
1948.01 states that “(1) All buildings having two or more stories in height
shall be equipped with fire alarm system and signals of distinctive quality
and pitch clearly audible to all persons inside the building.” Rule on 1948.03
requires that “(1) Fire-exit drills shall be conducted at least twice a year  to
maintain an orderly evacuation of buildings, unless the local fire department
requires a higher frequency of fire drills.”
C. Recommendations

1. Being alerted to a fire is one thing, but then everyone in the building needs to
be clear on how to respond to that alarm. In commercial buildings, illuminated fire
exit signs help to guide people to safety, but they need to practice fire safety
procedure regularly, to ensure it is automatic if and when an incident should
arise.

2. Making people aware of the potential triggers, how to activate fire alarms and
the routes out of a building are all critical to minimizing the risks. As are details
such as the importance of not returning into the building until you have been
informed it is safe to do so.

3.Even in a low risk environment, there is still a chance that a fire may start. The
second concern is therefore to install early warning systems that will improve the
chances of escape. Fire alarms and smoke alarms are examples of such
devices. They will make a loud noise to warn people that fire or smoke has been
detected. Once alerted, people can take action to get out of the building as safely
as possible. Fire alarms can also be connected to local fire stations, so they are
also alerted to the incident and can be on the scene more quickly.

4. Fire Safety Signs are important.  They are designed to help the occupants of a
building fight a small fire and swiftly evacuate the premises.

REFERENCES

(https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-
network/2015/jul/20/the-inside-story-of-the-kentex-disaster-74-workers-died-but-
no-one-is-in-prison)

(https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-
network/2015/jun/08/philippines-factory-fire-72-workers-unions-human-rights)

(https://www.rappler.com/nation/dire-conditions-factories-valenzuela-kentex)

(https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1342676/sandiganbayan-acquits-valenzuela-fire-
execs-company-official-over-kentex-fire)

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fire)
(https://www.ifsec.events/philippines/visit/news-and-updates/tragedy-fires-death-
and-destruction-philippines)

(https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/safety)

APPENDICES
CURRICULUM VITAE