Demolition of NCCC Maa today
NEARLY five months since the fire that hit the 14-year-old homegrown shopping mall and killed 38 workers, the demolition of New City Commercial Center (NCCC) Mall Davao is scheduled to commence today, May 19.
NCCC Mall Davao public relations manager Thea Padua confirmed this in an interview yesterday.
She said the management had applied for demolition permit last February and was given a go signal by the Office of the Building Official however, the Interagency Anti-Arson Task Force (IATF), the body formed to investigate the ill-fated incident barred them pending the release of their report on the investigation. But earlier they were given clearance to start the demolition.
The permit requires the mall management to complete the demolition within a period of 30 days from the starting date. Also, based on reports, the mall management applied for demolition last February 2 and paid the city permit fee worth P187,854.
“Actually we applied for the demolition last February pa pero we received a clearance from IATF na okay na despite wala pang (investigation) report, cleared na ‘mi to demolish, this month lang,” she said.
Padua said they still have to receive a copy of the investigation report.
D.M. Consunji, Inc. (DMCI) will be doing the demolition work.
Asked on what would be the plan of the mall after the demolition, she said the company plans to still build a mall but she said that there is no definite plan yet.
Fire gutted the mall on December 23, 2017.
The incident claimed 37 lives of Survey Sampling International (SSI) employees and one employee of the mall after they were trapped at the fourth floor where the call center office is located.
Initial investigation of the task force revealed that the cause of the fire was electrical short circuit that originated at the third floor of the mall, as manifested on the physical evidences they gathered.
They also noted violations in the safety facility such as the alarm system, fire exit and the sprinkler.