Probers still clueless on cause of fire in Cotabato City

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Probers still have no clue on Saturday’s fire that razed more than half of dozens of vending stalls at the city’s barter trade, where local folks and tourists flock to buy imported merchandise not found in department stores.

The conflagration that hit the landmark barter trade was the second since November 13, 2009, which destroyed more than a hundred stalls.

The barter trade center, located along the Gov. Gutierrez Avenue here that leads to the 32-hectare compound of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, opened in the early 1980s as a trading outlet for merchandise, such as textile and food products, imported by Moro merchants from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Regular fire probers and arson investigators from the city’s Bureau of Fire Protection are still investigating on  the cause of  the conflagration.