37 Call Center Workers Confirmed Dead in Mall Fire

They worked for US company in Philippines mall
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 26, 2017 12:44 AM CST
37 Call Center Workers Confirmed Dead in Mall Fire
The NCCC mall in Davao.   (WikipediaWolfgang Hagele)

Firefighters in the Philippines have found all 37 bodies of employees of a US-based company who were trapped in a blaze that gutted a shopping mall in southern Davao city. Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said that firefighters initially found one body at the NCCC Mall on Sunday, but that extreme heat and thick smoke prevented them from retrieving the bodies of the 36 other employees until Monday. Senior Superintendent Wilberto Rico Neil Kwan Tiu, regional director of the Bureau of Fire Protection, relayed the news to the employees' relatives, who broke into tears, the AP reports. They were told the bodies would be identified by authorities then turned over to their families.

All the dead were employees at a call center on the top floor of the four-story mall and run by US-based Research Now SSI, which employs about 500 people. Its chief executive officer, Gary Laben, said the company would help with funeral arrangements and create a fund for contributions for the victims' families. "This terrible tragedy has left us with heavy hearts," Laben said. The fire started Saturday morning after a storm hit Davao and flooded parts of the city. Except for a grocery store on the ground floor and the call center on the top floor, the shopping areas were still closed to the public when the fire started mid-morning, preventing a bigger tragedy amid the peak Christmas shopping season.

(More Philippines stories.)

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