MANILA, Philippines--A fire caused by an overheated air-conditioning unit struck a slum area near a public school in Manila Thursday morning, leaving some 60 families homeless.

Fire officials said no one was reported killed or hurt in the fire which razed the shanties at the back of the Dr. Juan Nolasco High School on Tioco Street in Tondo.

School authorities immediately suspended classes when the fire broke out at 10:09 a.m.

Some 1,000 students were sent home as people in the neighborhood started salvaging whatever they could from their houses.

Some residents also constructed makeshift rafts to get them to the other side of the Estero de Vitas, away from where the fire was raging.

SFO2 Lords Hernandez, arson investigator of the Manila Fire District, said the fire started in the house of Baby Javier.

Javier had just turned on the air-conditioning when it overheated and started spewing smoke, Hernandez added.

He said that instead of pulling the plug, Javier threw water on the unit, causing it to short-circuit and start a fire which quickly spread to nearby houses that were built of light materials. Three of the school?s classrooms were also damaged.

Hernandez said the fire reached the fourth alarm before it was put out at around 11:15 a.m. He placed the estimated cost of damage to property at P300,000.

School principal Rosalinda Nepumuceno said classes would resume on Monday to give authorities time to clean up.