Cotabato fire victims get aid

FILE PHOTO/ Cotabato City (Photo By Mike Gonzalez (TheCoffee) – English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,)

COTABATO CITY — The city government is extending assistance to about 123 families affected by a fire that hit a residential area in Barangay Tukananes, Cotabato City over the weekend.

The fire, which was believed to have been caused by electrical malfunction razed to the ground more than 100 homes made of light materials, situated in an area surrounded by Rio Grande de Mindanao.

Fire investigators said the fire started in the house of a certain Amil Akop after his electric fan exploded and went ablaze at past 5 p.m. Saturday.

Cotabato City Mayor Cynthia Guiani-Sayadi immediately directed the City Social Welfare Office and the City District Risk Reduction and Management Council to assist the affected families.

Some of the affected families stayed with their relatives’ homes while others are encamped in the old pier just across Barangay Tukananes.

It took five fire trucks from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) to extinguish the 4-hour conflagration, Fire Officer 1 Aldrin Jason Nara said.

Nara said probers estimated the damage to properties at around PHP600,000. No casualty was reported.

It was the second fire incident in the village since 2016. Last year, about 170 homes were also razed by a fire that hit the village of Tukananes believed to have been caused by electrical short circuit. (PNA)