Philippines factory fire kills dozens

At least 28 people were killed and dozens more feared dead after a fire tore through a factory producing flip-flops in the Philippine capital Manila yesterday, the city's fire marshal said.

Firemen said they counted 28 bodies but were only able to retrieve three as the gutted building threatened to collapse after the blaze, which began before noon (0400 GMT), destroyed the building.

"They were lying side by side, but all I could see were their bones," the Manila fire marshal, Senior Superintendent Sergio Soriano told AFP.
Rex Gatchalian, mayor of the industrial suburb of Valenzuela where the blaze occurred, told AFP before the death toll was announced that 67 workers were unaccounted for.

Factory guard Mervin Ardes, one of the survivors, told AFP "more than 50" people were at work at the time of the disaster.

The fire sent a huge column of black smoke above the metropolis of 14 million people.

"It happened so fast that few people were able to escape," he said, adding workers downstairs who were blocked by flames and smoke also fled upstairs where the bodies were later seen.

Huge and sometimes deadly fires at sprawling slums as well as factories are a common occurrence in the Philippine capital, where fire safety regulations are sometimes wilfully disregarded.