CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 9, 2012) – As many as two dozen people, mostly store employees, were killed after a huge fire broke out early Wednesday at a three-storey building in Butuan City in the southern Philippines, reports said.
It said the fire started at around 3.30 a.m. trapping most of the employees who were staying inside the Novo store. At least 18 bodies had been recovered from the building, but those who survived the inferno said many others were trapped inside.
The store’s main door was locked from the outside and those who escaped the fire said they jumped out from the fire exit at the second floor.
The fire quickly spread to the whole building and one report said a huge part of the second floor collapsed, but it was not immediately known if there were employees sleeping at the ground floor.
Arson investigators have not determined the cause of the blaze and fire fighters were searching for bodies buried in debris. (Mindanao Examiner)
20