NEWSFLASH

BLASTS DESTROY TARLAC AFP AMMO DEPO

Tarlac City, Dec. 1, 1998 - Two hours of powerful explosions, triggered by a fire, rocked the ammunition depot at Camp Servillano Aquino before dawn yesterday, sending hundreds of mortars and rockets off to rain down around the camp, some landing in a village outside the military complex.

At least a dozen buildings were destroyed by the blasts, which were heard as far as the adjoining province of Pampanga and Angeles City. The explosions were so powerful that glass windows were shattered one kilometer away from the camp. Fortunately, no lives were lost.

''The building where the explosions originated vanished, the whole building,'' Maj. Gen. Rene Dado, head of the Northern Luzon Command based in the camp, told reporters.

Only a huge crater, about 10 meters wide and six meters deep, was left in its place.

The lone guard on duty had spotted smoke coming out of the building and was able to run to safety before the series of explosions began, Dado said.

Dado ruled out sabotage. The fire and explosions could have been set off by chemical reaction inside the depot, he theorized. Arson investigators, however, said the fire started at the room of a retired soldier living in the Nolcom's Veterans Corps building. From there, the fire leaped to the ammo depot and other structures nearby.

About 1,000 rockets used by helicopter gunships, bullets, old grenades and other explosives were kept in the depot either for repair or disposal. It was the country's biggest ammo dump.

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Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi