Fire guts house-turned-factory in Philippines, killing 16

Manila [Philippines], September 1: Sixteen people were killed in a fire that swept through a two-storey house converted into a clothes factory in the Philippines, officials said on Thursday.
Three people escaped the fire by climbing out of a window on the second floor of the house in Quezon City in metropolitan Manila, said Nahum Tarroza, a regional director at the Bureau of Fire Protection.
"The victims were trapped in the house," he said in a radio interview. "The fire started in front of the house, which was the entrance and exit, where there was an ongoing expansion." Among the fatalities were the couple who owned the house and business and their 3-year-old child.
Tarroza said the body of another child was found in the debris as firefighters were clearing the rubble.
"Hopefully there will be no more additional victims," he said.
Investigators were still determining the exact cause of the blaze, which broke out at dawn while the victims were sleeping.
The victims were family members and workers who were staying in the house, which had been turned into a factory making t-shirts and other clothes.
It took firefighters nearly three hours to extinguish the blaze. Local officials said they were checking if the necessary permits were in place to operate the factory.
The fire erupted after heavy rains that caused flooding in some parts of the capital, which delayed the response of firefighters, Tarroza said.
"We are also investigating that because some roads were flooded, traffic was bad, and apparently the wrong address was initially given," he said.
An investigation was looking into the cause and if safety regulations were breached by the factory owner, officials said.
The factory stored combustible materials and textile used in making apparel and also printed designs on shirts used for business promotions, village officials said.
Construction of buildings and residential enclaves that don't conform to safety standards and lax enforcement of safety regulations have caused deadly fires in the Philippines in the past.
A 1996 nightclub fire killed 162 people, mostly students celebrating the end of the school year, in Quezon city. About 400 people were packed in the Ozone disco when the fire started, but many were unable to escape because the emergency exit was blocked by a new building next door.
Source: Qatar Tribune