Retired cop dies in fire as nation remembers the dead

COTABATO CITY – A retired police colonel, bedridden due to illness, died in a fire that hit a residential area here during the early hours of All Soul’s Day, November 2.

Fire Officer Aldrin Jason Nara, speaking for Cotabato City Bureau of Fire Protection, said the fire gutted the house owned by retired police Colonel Mendiora Mambatao in Barangay Rosary Heights 1.

Six other houses were also razed, rendering at least 10 families homeless.

Nara said the fire originated from the ceiling of the room where Mambatao was staying.

Mambatao’s 18-year-old daughter survived by leaping through the window and landed in an improvised cushion put up by neighbors and responders.

Nara said firefighters had difficulty reaching the fire scene due to narrow roads and parked vehicles along the route.