Bella Ifasola
MANILA – Raging orange flames and thick black smoke billowed into the sky on Sunday as fire ripped through hundreds of houses in a closely built slum area of the Philippine capital Manila.
Around 1,000 houses were burned in the blaze that is thought to have started on the second floor of one of the homes, Manila Fire District said.
The structures housed around 2,000 families, according to the fire department.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Drone footage shared online by the city’s disaster agency showed houses in Isla Puting Bato village of Manila razed to the ground.
A resident Leonila Abiertas, 65, said she lost almost all her possessions, but managed to save her late husband’s ashes.
“I only got the urn with the ashes of my husband,” a crying Abiertas told AFP news agency. “I really don’t know how I can start my life again after this fire.”
Fire and disaster services deployed 36 trucks and four fire boats while the country’s airforce sent in two helicopters to help extinguish the fire.
“That area is fire-prone since most of the houses there are made of light materials,” firefighter Geanelli Nunez told AFP.