MANILA (UPDATE) - Local disaster officials on Saturday estimate that it may take 2 days before firefighters could fully put out the blaze that hit the department store building of the Metro Ayala Center in Cebu City.

The Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) made the announcement following the issuance of a haze alert as smoke made roads at the Cebu Business Park's commercial area dangerous.

• Haze alert up in Cebu City as mall fire rages on

In a statement, Metro Retail Group Inc assured the public that all customers and mall personnel have been safely evacuated.

"The Metro and Ayala Center Cebu Emergency Brigade Teams are closely working with the Bureau of Fire Protection and other emergency response teams to manage the situation," said Vincent Tomaneng, chief legal counsel of Metro Retail Stores Group Inc.

He added that the mall management is closely coordinating with mall merchants on operational concerns.

Fire began at the 6-story department store's toy stockroom at the 3rd floor around 9:30 p.m.

• Fire hits Metro Ayala Center Cebu

As of this posting, firefighters have yet to declare the blaze under control more than 16 hours since the fire began.

A fire came out of the building at around 8:45 p.m. on Saturday.

CDRRMO head Nagiel Bañacia said no less than 5 firefighters have been deployed inside the building to check the situation. More than 50 fire trucks have responded to the burning building.

He added that the blaze in the first to fourth floors have been extinguished, while fire remains at the fifth and sixth floors.

Bañacia said a generator set in the sixth floor that contains 6,000 liters of oil was one of the causes of the fire.--With reports from Leleth Rumaguera, ABS-CBN

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