Mayor Sara: We expect 37 casualties from mall fire

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Authorities here have now shifted their efforts to recovering bodies of dozens of those trapped in a Davao City mall fire that broke out Saturday, December 23.

Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio met anew with the families of those 37 missing, this time at the Southern Philippines Medical Center, where at one point she embraced a mother.

“They will not stop until they recover the 37,” Duterte-Carpio told the families on Sunday night, December 24.

Hours after her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, told the families that there is “zero” chances of survival among those trapped inside the mall, a charred body was recovered Sunday morning from the mall.

In the meeting, she told families of a “mechanism” of identifying bodies.

She said personnel from the Bureau of Fire Protection will be tasked to document distinguishing features in bodies. These would later be shown to families.

The families, in turn, would then coordinate with them in identifying the bodies.

Duterte-Carpio assured the families that the city government will shoulder burial expenses. (IN PHOTOS: Duterte cries with kin of Davao mall fire victims)

“Do not over-exhaust yourselves because we still have a long way to go,” she told the families. – Rappler.com