Fire destroys 400 stalls in Iloilo town market

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—A fire gutted the dry goods market of Calinog town in Iloilo Thursday night, destroying around 400 stalls and damaging some 50 others.

No fatalities were reported in the three-hour fire that started around 8:30 p.m., said Mayor Alex Centena of Calinog, 53 kilometer north of this city.

Centena said the fire destroyed all the stalls inside the market and around 90 percent of those outside the structure. Initial estimates placed the cost of the damage from P150 million to P200 million.

Fire investigators told Centena that the cause of the fire could have been a short circuit in the electrical wiring system in one of the stalls.

He said stall owners were unable to evacuate their goods because the market closes at 7:30 p.m. and only three security guards were left at night.

“We were not able to salvage anything and everything was lost, including our capital,” Centena, whose two stalls in the market were also burned down, told the Inquirer in telephone interview on Friday.

He said the town council plans to declare a state of calamity so that funds could be released to assist the stall owners.