Fire hits ARMM's health department

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - A fire caused by faulty electrical wirings gutted a supply storage facility of the health department of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) on Tuesday morning.

The fire, which started at about 10:30 a.m. was put out an hour later by responding firemen from the city’s fire bureau and from nearby towns.

No one was reported hurt.

Physician Ariadne Silongan, a senior consultant of the ARMM’s Department of Health (DOH), told reporters the fire broke out at a time when employees in all buildings of the department were busy attending to their daily assignments.

The buildings housing the region’s DOH officials are located at the northernmost part of the 32-hectare ARMM compound in the city, about 500 meters away from the office of the region’s chief executive, Gov. Mujiv Hataman.

Responding fire investigators have ruled that the fire was caused by faulty electrical wirings, based on initial accounts of employees working inside the building.

The ARMM’s regional health secretary, ophthalmologist Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., said he has instructed the in-charge of the burnt supply storage and the department’s accounting personnel to help fire probers determine the value of property and supplies destroyed.