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CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews/06 January) — The post office building along Chavez and Rizal Streets here burned around 2:00 a.m. today and gutted along with it the government-owned telecommunications office at the second floor of the 36-year-old structure.
Firefighters declared the fire under control after about two hours.
Fire investigators said the post office was only 60-percent burned, although several outgoing and incoming mails were either burned or damaged by water used to contain the blaze.
SFOI Victor Naive said they traced the starting point of the fire to teller window 7 facing the front part of the ground floor. He added faulty electrical wiring may have ignited the fire.
City Post Master Rizalito Labiano said that not all letters and packages were lost as the fire only gutted totally the front side of the building facing Chavez Street. Most of the mails and parcels are in the back of the building facing Rizal Street.
Firefighters were able to prevent the fire from spreading totally to the rear portion. However, most of the contents in the building were soaked in water.
City Telecoms Director Dinglatan Rajah said that the Telecoms office on the second floor was totally burned.
Damage was initially placed at about P500,000. But the figure could go higher if city building officials would declare the structure already weak and uninhabitable upon inspection. (BenCyrus G. Ellorin/MindaNews)