900 families left homeless in Mandaluyong fire

MANILA, Philippines — A fire gutted a shantytown in Addition Hills in Mandaluyong, leaving 900 families homeless and seven people injured yesterday.

The Bureau of Fire Protection-National Capital Region field office said in a report that the injured include a 19-year-old man who suffered a head injury and a 60-year-old woman who collapsed.

Arson probers have yet to provide details about the five other people who got hurt.

Jimmy Isidro, city public information officer, said in a message on Viber that 900 households or about 4,500 people were displaced.

The victims sought shelter in an evacuation center where they are receiving relief supplies from the local government.

Investigators said the fire broke out at 11:24 a.m. and reached the fourth alarm. It was controlled at around 2:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, a warehouse along Sandoval Avenue in Barangay Pinagbuhatan, Pasig was also hit by fire on Friday night.

The blaze started at 7:19 p.m. on Friday and was extinguished at 6:38 a.m. yesterday.

Barangay councilor Jess Santos said authorities initially declared the fire under control before 8 p.m. on Friday, but the blaze rekindled.

Santos said the warehouse stores aluminum used for faucet finishes, other bathroom supplies and carton packaging.

Authorities recorded no casualties or injuries, though one man had trouble breathing.

Aireen Arog, a warehouse employee, lamented the human toll of the fire.

“It’s painful to see what happened to where you worked for years. I have a family to support and, right now, I don’t know where to begin again,” Arog told reporters.

Arson investigators are still probing the cause of the blaze. — EJ Macababbad