A man watches houses on fire at Tondo in Manila on November 24, 2024. Photo by JAM STA ROSA / AFP
A massive blaze tore through a coastal shantytown in the Philippine capital, scorching makeshift wooden homes and spreading rapidly between the densely packed structures.
The fire destroyed more than 1,000 structures in eight hours in the city’s Tondo district before firefighters extinguished it Sunday, Manila’s disaster management office said. As of Monday, disaster management officials said there were no known casualties.
Disaster management officials said the neighborhood, an informal settlement wedged along a narrow strip between the city’s port and Manila Bay, was vulnerable to fire, and aerial footage showed how quickly the flames spread.
Alain Thomas R. Matias, a spokesman for Manila’s disaster management office, said the scorched homes were constructed from scavenged materials, mainly wood, and balanced on stilts above the water. "It’s like you lit up a box of matches,” he wrote in an email Monday.
Photographs showed residents fleeing by boat with their belongings as firefighters battled the blaze with hoses.
Video shared by officials showed thick smoke billowing as flames darted quickly between tightly packed homes. At one point, authorities deployed a helicopter to dump water on the blaze.
According to Matias, about 1,000 affected families were being accommodated in a dedicated evacuation center nearby, as well as at several schools in the area.
According to the disaster management office, the fire started around 8 a.m. and was extinguished after 4 p.m.
