Escolta Fire

Prominent on the news this week was:

Fire hits building formerly occupied by City College of Manila

By Julliane Love de Jesus@inquirerdotnet

INQUIRER.net

9:05 AM | Wednesday, January 7th, 2015

As firefighters tried to contain the blaze, a chunk of concrete fell on fire volunteer Eric Lua who was then rushed to Chinese General Hospital.

The entire Escolta Street was closed as fire razed portions of the building that was formerly occupied by the defunct City College of Manila, now Universidad de Manila located in Ermita.

From the eighth floor, flames reached up to the 14th floor. The Bureau of Fire Protection raised the fire alert to Task Force Bravo.

(Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/662787/fire-hits-building-formerly-occupied-by-city-college-of-manila#ixzz3OSIt4Rib)

(End of Love de Jesus' article)
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From a google image search of  "fire city college of manila"

Hmmmmm!

Hmmmmm (again)! This looks familiar!!!

It is the City College of Manila alright!

In another life it was the

Philippine National Bank

!!!

PNB Escolta has been around for generations- PNB maintained a branch on the ground floor until the building eventually burned down. The above building came into existence sometime in the '60s, when Escolta (and Binondo and, to some extent, Ermita, too) were the hub of our financial community.