(Manila) Eight people, including six children, died in a fire that ravaged a poor district of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on Monday, firefighters announced on Tuesday.
Posted at 12:12 a.m.
Three other people were injured in the fire, which broke out around 5 a.m. (2100 GMT) on the second floor of a house in a crowded slum on the sprawling campus of the University of the Philippines.
Firefighters took nearly two hours to put out the blaze that is destroying 80 homes, said senior fire officer Greg Bichayda.
An investigation has been opened to find out the origin of this fire.
Due to the rapid spread of the fire, people found themselves trapped inside their homes, which were built of lightweight materials, Bichayda said.
The age of the victims is not yet known, but he said six of them were minors.
“Our barracks was located nearby, but they couldn’t call us immediately,” the officer added.
More than 13 million people live in the densely populated Philippine capital, including tens of thousands in crowded slums where fires are frequent.
Many residents have fled rural poverty to live in Manila in hopes of finding employment.