Probers still looking for leads on Pikit market fire

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines -- Fire probers are still clueless on the cause of fire that razed Saturday night more than 50 stores at the public market of Pikit town in the province.

Aurelio Pulido Jr., municipal local government operation officer Pikit, an agricultural town in the first district of North Cotabato, said the fire started at a bakery and spread to other establishments fast.

The structures gutted by fire were mostly made up of light materials, such as lumber and semi-concrete fixtures.

Pulido said responding firemen from the municipal fire bureau and from other towns around Pikit  put off the fire after about an hour after it broke out. - John Unson