Fire kills 11 in oldest Chinatown in the world

CHINATOWN TRAGEDY Eleven people were killed in a fire that broke out in the world’s oldest Chinatown on Friday. Although it was put out quickly, the fire on Carvajal Street in Binondo, Manila, was one of the country’s deadliest in recent years. Inset shows firefighters moving one of the survivors. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Eleven people were killed after a fire broke out in the oldest Chinatown in the world, one of the deadliest fires in Metro Manila since the Kentex slipper factory blaze that killed 74 people in Valenzuela 2015.

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the latest fire occurred on Friday morning at a five-story residential and commercial building in Manila’s Binondo district, the oldest Chinatown in the world having been founded in 1594.

The fire that hit Pingco Building at 647 Carvajal Street started at 7:28 a.m. after a gas tank exploded at an eatery on the building’s ground floor.

BFP said the fire reached second alarm at 8:14 a.m., but it was declared under control at 9:31 a.m. and extinguished at 10:03 a.m.

It took less than two hours for firemen to extinguish the blaze and the authorities estimated that property damage reached about P100,000.

But after the fire was put out, investigators found six human bodies on the mezzanine floor and five others on the second floor. The authorities have not identified the fatalities at press time, but barangay Councilor Nelson Ty said the wife of the building’s owner was among those who perished.

READ: 11 dead in Binondo, Manila fire

In a radio interview, Fire Senior Insp. Michael Ignacio, chief of operation of the Manila Fire District, said there was no way for the victims to escape the building because the windows were fitted with iron grills.

Deadly fires

It was the deadliest fire in Metro Manila, since 74 workers were killed in blaze at the Kentex slipper factory in Valenzuela City on May 13, 2015.

In March 2018, six casino workers were killed at the Manila Pavilion Hotel while two dozen others were injured after the fire hit the 22-story hotel on UN Avenue in Manila.

There was a worse fire that lasted 32 hours at the New City Commercial Center mall in Davao City in 2017 when 37 call center employees and a shopping mall security officer were killed.

The deadliest fire in the country was the one that broke out in March 1996 at the Ozone Disco in Quezon City, where 162 people, mostly young people celebrating their graduations, were killed.

Following the Pingco Building fire, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuña condoled with the families of the victims and ordered the inspection of all buildings in the city.

“In response to this tragedy, I will be issuing a memorandum instructing all building and fire officials to conduct thorough inspections of all structures within the city,” Lacuña said in a statement.

The structures at highest fire risk, especially those buildings that are at least 15 years old, will be prioritized, she said.