Philippines: dozens feared killed after fire at footwear factory

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/13/philippines-fire-footwear-factory-manila

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Dozens of people are feared to have died after a fire gutted a footwear factory in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

Rex Gatchalian, mayor of the northern Manila industrial suburb of Valenzuela, said firefighters took four hours to get the blaze under control on Wednesday, and entered the burnt-out building to find an undetermined number of bodies.

They were unable to count the dead inside, but found no survivors, he said. “None of those trapped inside survived,” Gatchalian told relatives outside the factory.

He added that firefighters could not immediately determine how many bodies had been inside, but relatives told officials that up to 63 of their family members working in the factory at the time were unaccounted for.

Gatchalian urged the relatives to check again whether the missing releatives were among those who had managed to escape the blaze. “I’m not saying all [the missing] are dead. We’re still hoping they were able to jump out,” he said.

The fire broke out shortly before noon local time, apparently due to a spark from a welding job at the building’s main entrance hitting flammable chemicals stored there, Gatchalian told ABS-CBN television in a separate interview. He said the bodies of three other victims were recovered earlier.

Factory worker Nedy Neverio, 35, was among the relatives who gathered outside the two-storey factory. She was awaiting word on her elder sister Nora Verenzuela, 42, and two nephews, who are also missing.

“Someone told us no one escaped from the area where she was assigned [packing slippers into bags],” Neverio told AFP. “My sister’s workplace was near the chemicals. She was not able to get out because the flames had spread.”

Injured survivor Emma Santa Agata told ABS-CBN that many of her fellow workers were trapped at their workstations on the second floor of the building. “My boss and I were running out when we were blocked by fire and smoke,” Santa Agata said. “There was a sudden explosion and he got hit on the arm.”