COTABATO CITY–A huge fire razed to the ground the city public market here shortly before midnight Monday.
The four-hour conflagration gutted down the market’s two-storey building and some 1, 500 stalls inside the facility, said Fire Officer 2 Aldrin Nara, city fore department spokesman.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, but Nara said accounts from witnesses indicated that it started around 11:30 p.m., and originated from the market’s meat section.
No one perished from the fire, but a fireman sustained minor burns from battling the conflagration.
“We had a hard time engaging the fire particularly at the second floor of the building used by second hand clothing vendors,” Nara said.
The fire was declared under control around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Nur Karim, a dry goods stall owner, said he lost some Php200, 000 worth of stocks in the fire.
“I am still at a lost how to start over again,” Karim said in the dialect.
Hadja Kariman, a mobile phone accessories and repair stall owner, said she saved nothing as she watched helplessly the fire engulfing her stall. “All I did was cry as I saw my shop crumbled before me,” she said in the dialect.
Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi, who was at the fire scene, said she received reports that the fire may have been a case of arson.
“I am ordering a full inquiry on the matter to clear everything,” Guiani-Sayadi said. Fire probers have yet to determine the total damage in the fire incident. (Noel Punzalan/PNA)
