Firefighters battled for hours to extinguish the blaze that started on the third floor
At least 37 people may have died in the massive fire that ravaged a shopping mall here on Saturday, authorities said on Sunday as firefighters continued battling pockets of flames 16 hours after the blaze broke.
The Davao City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said the fire started around 9:40 a.m. Saturday in the third floor of the New City Commercial Center (NCCC) mall and the fire was reported not long before the mall was supposed to open.
President Rodrigo Duterte said during a meeting with the families of the missing that there was “zero chance of survival,” according to the state-run Philippines News Agency (PNA).
PNA also reported that most of the missing people were employees of SSI Philippines, a business process outsourcing company located on the fourth floor of the mall.
The president arrived at a restaurant where the kin of the missing were gathered just across from the smoldering four-storey edifice past 9:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Officials said rescue workers may begin on Sunday their task of searching and retrieving the bodies and firemen and rescuers were finding it difficult to penetrate the inner portions of the building due to thick smoke and searing heat as pockets of fire continued to burn.
Six workers were able to escape with injuries in the early stages of the fire which started around 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, police said.
The mall’s marketing manager, Janna Abdullah Mutalib, said the blaze started on the third floor, where clothes, appliances and furniture were sold, the Philippines Star website reports.
There have also been horrific fires in bigger buildings and factories, where corruption and exploitation mean supposedly strict standards are often not enforced.