WORLD
25,000 homeless in Manila slum fire
Baku, February 8 (AZERTAC). Fire raced through a slum near the main port in the Philippine capital Manila gutting hundreds of shanties and leaving 25,000 people homeless, an official said. There were no other reports of deaths or major injuries in the Saturday night blaze at the Baseco Compound, a crowded slum along the rim of Manila Bay, Senior Fire Officer Emmanuel Gaspar said. An Associated Press photographer at the site saw people waiting to be treated for minor injuries, including wounds from glass shards.
The cause of the fire, which raged for two hours, fanned by strong winds, is still under investigation, Gaspar said. Fires in Manila`s overcrowded slums are common, with the tight living conditions allowing flames to quickly spread through houses made of light materials. Saturday`s fire destroyed 500 shanties. The fire was believed set off by a gas tank that exploded, officials said. Firefighters struggled to gain access to the blaze in the overcrowded area where ramshackle homes line passageways that are too narrow for firetrucks to pass, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.
Twenty-seven firetrucks and a navy fire boat on a nearby river assisted in the operation. At least 23 people were brought to various hospitals for injuries, but no deaths have been reported so far, the Office of Civil Defense said. At least 2,500 homes were burned down, leaving 5,006 families - or 25,030 people - homeless, it added. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrived at the scene early Monday and supervised the transition of a gym into a center to accommodate the homeless, Soliman said.