By Ben Serrano
At least 12 persons were killed, six others were feared dead while another three others were seriously hurt in an early dawn fire that hit a commercial building located at the city commercial district here Wednesday.
All the fatalities were believed to have been trapped inside the third floor of Novo Department Store believed to have only one fire exit.
Butuan City Fire Marshall Aldrick Gomez confirmed that 12 persons were so far found dead inside Novo Department Store, that is renting the three-storey Tan Commercial Building located at commercial area in Montilla Boulevard this city.
Gomez said three sales ladies of Novo Store, who were able to escape from the third floor of Tan Building which served as their sleeping quarters, suffered burns. The three are now confined at Elisa R. Ochoa Memorial Maternity and General Hospital at San Jose Street this city.
The injured sales ladies were identified as Vicky Velez, 21, from Cagayan de Oro City; Grace Canoy, 22, resident of Pagadian City and Marilyn Tulo, 20, from Aurora, Zamboanga del Sur.
Novo has stores in cities of Cagayan de Oro, Pagadian, Surigao and other cities in Mindanao. It is owned by Chinese nationals, according to Amy Delegiro, one of the assistant store supervisors of Novo Department Store Butuan City.
Delegiro told the PNA in an interview at the fire scene here that there are 21 sales ladies who were staying and sleeping on the third floor of Novo Department Store. She said most of the stay-ins working for Novo were not residents of Butuan City.
Gomez said eight of the casualties were sales ladies of Novo Department store.
Gomez said at about 3:55 a.m. Wednesday the Butuan City Fire Department received emergency call for assistance from the area.
Gomez said fire trucks from nearby towns in Agusan del Norte arrived at the fire scene to help.
He said the fire was put out after more than two hours of fire fighting initiatives from 15 fire trucks from Butuan City, Cabadbaran City and other towns in Agusan provinces who have fire truck.
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Topic: 12 Perished in Butuan City Fire (Read 1612 times)