Raging orange flames and thick black smoke billowed into the sky as fire ripped through hundreds of houses in a closely-built slum area of the Philippine capital Manila.
Manila Fire District said around 1,000 houses were burned in the blaze yesterday that is thought to have started on the second floor of one of the homes.
Heroes and heartbreak: A Philippine Air Force helicopter dropping water over houses on fire. — AFP/ Reuters
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.
Residents carrying their belongings as they make their escape. — AFP/ Reuters
The structures housed around 2,000 families, according to the fire department.
Village resident Leonila Abiertas, 65, lost almost all her possessions, but managed to save her late husband’s ashes.
A woman crying as she watches the devastation. — AFP/ Reuters
“I only got the urn with the ashes of my husband,” a crying Abiertas told AFP.
“I really don’t know how I can start my life again after this fire.”
People saving their possessions on a makeshift raft. — AFP/ Reuters
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.
A man watching as fire razes homes. — AFP/ Reuters
