At least 11 people were killed on Friday when a fire broke out in a five-storey residential and commercial building in the Chinatown complex of the Philippine capital.
The fire, which broke out in Manila’s Binondo district, was extinguished about three hours after firefighters were informed about it at 7:30 a.m. local time, fire officials said, but the cause of the blaze was not immediately available.
“The wife of the building owner was among those killed,” Nelson Tye, an elected official in the community where the fire started, told radio station DZRH. He added that vendors used the building to store their goods at night.
However, he said it was not yet clear whether more people were trapped and feared dead.
The Philippines has a poor record of enforcing fire safety in buildings, homes and offices.
Sixteen people were killed in a fire at a residential and warehouse building in August last year, while a massive fire also broke out at the capital’s historic Central Post Office building in May 2023.
In 2017, a fire at a shopping mall in southern Davao City killed 37 call center agents and a security officer.