A massive fire tore through a coastal shanty town in the Philippine capital on Sunday, leaving at least 2,000 families homeless as flames billowed for nearly eight hours. <\/p>\n
Drone footage from the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office showed raging orange flames razing densely packed stilt homes in Isla Puting Bato, a squalid area of Tondo, Manila. <\/p>\n
The Manila Fire District said around 1,000 houses were destroyed and roughly 8,000 people displaced in the blaze that broke out at 8 a.m. Sunday and burned until 4 p.m. <\/p>\n
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire disaster but blazes in Manila slums are often sparked by faulty electrical wiring or gas canisters. <\/p>\n
Isla Puting Bato sits in the district of Tondo, which is Manila\u2019s largest slum area home to roughly 654,220 people. Many live in shabby shacks across densely packed streets near a busy commercial port. <\/p>\n
There have been no immediate reports of casualties. <\/p>\n
Photos showed residents escaping the fire on makeshift rafts into the sea while others scrambled to salvage their belongings. <\/p>\n
Elvira Valdemoro, a 58-year-old Manila resident and shop owner was devastated by the damage. <\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad because we have no livelihood and no home. Everything is gone. We don\u2019t know how we can eat. We are in a very bad situation, and it\u2019s almost Christmas,\u201d she told Reuters. <\/p>\n
Manila Mayor Maria Sheilah \u201cHoney\u201d Lacuna-Pangan visited Isla Puting Bato on Monday and spoke with survivors who spent the night in makeshift tents. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlease be patient. We will keep coming to deliver help. No one wanted this to happen,\u201d Lacuna-Pangan told residents. <\/p>\n
She urged residents to get registered and voluntarily evacuate to a temporary shelter, where meals and supplies would be delivered. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe will help all of you. Don\u2019t lose hope. Let\u2019s help each other out ahead of Christmas time, we really hope to get you back to your homes.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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A massive fire tore through a coastal shanty town in the Philippine capital on Sunday, leaving at least 2,000 families homeless as flames billowed for nearly eight hours. Drone footage from the Manila Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office showed raging orange flames razing densely packed stilt homes in Isla Puting Bato, a squalid area <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10242,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}