Governor: No sign of massive casualties in Philippine fire

At least 126 were injured, including two Japanese supervisors, he said.

Firefighters and police investigators were waiting outside the gutted three-story building for the last embers to die and would start an inspection once it’s safe for them to enter, he said.

The fire apparently started when a machine malfunctioned and triggered small explosions in a section with combustible materials as two shifts of workers of about 3,500 each were coming in and going out, he said.

Massive amounts of black smoke billowed in the night sky as red flames raged late Wednesday through the factory, which employs about 15,000 workers and is the largest in Cavite province, he said.

The factory, which manufactured pre-fabricated house parts for export to Japan, is located in a special economic zone in General Trias, about 26 kilometres (16 miles) south of Manila.

In 2015, a fire that rapidly spread in a rubber slipper factory in a northern Manila suburb killed 72 people, prompting then President Benigno Aquino III to order a thorough inspection of some 300,000 factories in metropolitan Manila alone. He ordered charges to be filed against the owners of the Kentex Manufacturing Corp. and local officials, who he said ignored the factory’s failure to meet safety requirements.

The Kentex fire was one of the worst in the country after a 1996 disco blaze that killed 162 people in Manila.

The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Governor: No sign of massive casualties in Philippine fire

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