ZAMBOANGA CITY – About 500 people, most of them children, moved out of their houses after the ammonia main pipe of a canning factory leaked shortly after 1 a.m. yesterday.
Jose Abiera Repusala, machine operator at Universal Canning factory, said that the leak happened when he was about to close the ammonia machine about 1:15 a.m..
Village officials of Ayala where the factory is located immediately evacuated the people living within 1-kilometer radius and brought them to the village’s covered court for their safety.
The ammonia leak occurred at cannery 2 building of the factory and the odor reached as far as 2.5 kilometers away from the canning site.
No one was hospitalized due to the incident. (Nonoy E. Lacson)