Fire hits South Cotabato coffin factory

TANTANGAN, South Cotabato - The celebration of Fire Prevention Month here ended with a fire that hit a coffin making facility of a funeral parlor in Barangay San Felipe.The conflagration occurred at 12:30 p.m. beside the house of a certain Louie Java. His wife tried to stop the fire using the family owned fire extinguisher but it malfunctioned.Relatives and mourners of a dead person at the funeral parlor noticed the fire and alerted the funeral parlor owners. Frie trucks from Koronadal City and Tantanga, South Cotabato responded just in time and prevented the fire from eating up piles of coffins at the back of the funeral parlor.Arson investigators believed the fire was triggered by electricity short circuit.In Koronadal City, the fire prevention month started on March 1 this year with an incident of grass fire. On March 31, another grass fire erupted in the outskirts of the city.Since January, fire officials reported 64 cases of fire incidents.