Remains of trapped workers retrieved from razed Valenzuela factory

Authorities on Thursday retrieve remains of factory workers inside the Kentex Manufacturing Inc. in Valenzuela City. ERWIN AGUILON/RADYO INQUIRER 990AM

Authorities on Thursday retrieved remains of workers trapped inside the slipper factory of Kentex Manufacturing Inc. in Valenzuela City, which was gutted by fire on Wednesday morning.

READ: 35 killed, 65 missing in Valenzuela factory fire

According to a report by Erwin Aguilon of Radyo Inquirer early Thursday, retrieval teams from the Valenzuela City including operatives of the Scene of the Crime Operation (Soco) entered the factory to retrieve the remains of the workers.

The report said the remains were placed inside a body bag and were brought to a morgue in Maysan, Valenzuela.

Fourteen bodies had been hauled out of the two-storey factory by Thursday morning, local mayor Rex Gatchalian told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that 57 people were still considered missing.

“We don’t expect survivors from those (trapped) inside the building but we are hoping some were able to jump out,” he said.

“We are doing this retrieval as fast as we can.”

Firemen counted at least 28 dead bodies inside the factory before the search was called off on Wednesday night for safety reasons. It resumed at first light on Thursday morning.

“They were lying side by side, but all I could see were their bones,” Manila’s fire marshal, Senior Superintendent Sergio Soriano, told AFP on Wednesday night.

According to investigators, the seven-hour fire was reportedly ignited by sparks from the front door welding, which blended with a chemical, used in making slippers.

As of posting time, 35 people were killed according to Supt. Crisfo Diaz, deputy director for operations of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The fire began just before noon on Wednesday, with sparks from welding equipment used to repair a broken gate believed to have caused the blaze when they ignited flammable chemicals stored nearby.

“The building was totally damaged, the roofs have caved in and portions of the second floor have collapsed,” the city’s fire marshal, Senior Superintendent Rico Kwantiu, told AFP.

Factory workers were believed to have been trapped on the second floor of the building, while only a few are believed to have escaped.

Factory-owner Kentex Manufacturing makes cheap slippers and sandals for the local market, using names such as “Havana” that sound like well-known global brands, company employees said.

Lax safety standards?

An employee who survived the fire signaled lax fire safety standards may have contributed to the high death toll.

“I had never been involved in a fire drill ever,” survivor Janet Victoriano, who had worked at the factory for five years, told radio station DZMM.

However Mayor Gatchalian said it was too early to point fingers.

“An investigation is ongoing right now. It will be unfair to assign liability at this point. We are looking at all angles. We will see to it that those who are liable will be punished,” Gatchalian told AFP.

The families of the missing anxiously awaited their kin’s fate at a nearby village hall on Thursday.

In the worst fire in Manila in recent times, 162 people were killed in a huge blaze that gutted a Manila disco in 1996. TVJ/IDL

Authorities on Thursday retrieve remains of factory workers inside the Kentex Manufacturing Inc. in Valenzuela City. ERWIN AGUILON/RADYO INQUIRER 990AM