Police recovered 58 bodies and about a dozen more people are
still missing Thursday from a Philippine factory fire that an angry relative
said had trapped workers on the second floor of the building where iron grills
on windows prevented their escape.
The search for bodies
resumed after it was suspended late Wednesday because of the heat and worries
about the instability of the two-story building, a rubber slipper factory in
the outskirts of the Philippine capital, Manila.
Mayor Rex Gatchalian of
Valenzuela city, where the Kentex Manufacturing Corp. factory burned for
several hours Wednesday, said 13 people are still unaccounted for.
Questions are being
raised if the factory followed fire and building safety standards.
Dionesio Candido, whose
daughter, granddaughter, sister-in-law and niece were among the missing, said
iron grills reinforced with fencing wire covered windows on the second floor
that "could prevent even cats from escaping."
He said he was allowed by
authorities to enter the gutted building, where he saw charred remains
"piled on top of each other."
Gatchalian said the fire
was apparently ignited by sparks from welding work being done at the factory's
main entrance door, triggering an explosion of the chemicals used to make the
slippers.
Workers fled to the
second floor where they were trapped, he said. He was unsure if there were any
fire escapes there.
Firemen work to put the
fire under control at a still-smoldering Kentex rubber slipper factory in
Valenzuela city, a northern suburb of Manila, Philippines, Wednesday, May 13,
2015.
|
District Fire Marshal
Wilberto Rico Neil Kwan Tiu said that the building had other exits but apparently
the workers were overwhelmed by the thick black smoke from the burning rubber
and chemicals, which are highly flammable and caused the blaze to spread
quickly.
Local media reports quoted
relatives as saying their kin sent text messages saying they were on the second
floor, but contact was lost shortly after.
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