Candle in drug den starts fire in Navotas ‘crime haven’

Children at the Navotas Fish Port Complex view what remains of their slum community. —JOAN BONDOC

A fire that started in a shanty reportedly being used as a drug den left 1,200 families homeless at the Navotas Fish Port Complex on Tuesday morning.

Based on the initial investigation, a candle left unattended by drug users having a “shabu” (methamphetamine hydrochloride) session was the possible cause of the fire, Navotas police chief Senior Supt. Dante Novicio told the Inquirer.

Around 700 houses were destroyed in the inferno that engulfed the two-hectare government property beside Market 3, inside the 50-hectare fish port complex. The complex is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture’s Philippine Fishery Department Authority (PDFA).

The affected area is considered the city’s “most notorious community,” Novicio said, noting that many of the residents were drug users or pushers.

“It also became a safe haven for criminals. Market 3 was where people with murder and homicide cases went to hide. Policemen in the past had a difficult time penetrating it,” Novicio said.

According to Chief Supt. Leonard Bañago, deputy chief for administration of the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), the blaze was reported to authorities around 3:40 a.m. on Tuesday. It reached Task Force Charlie before it was declared out past 7 a.m. There were no reports of residents suffering serious injuries.

Senior Supt. Kwan Tiu, chief of the BFP-National Capital Region, citing the initial information they received, said a candle inside the shanty residents called “Bookingan” on Block 9 caused the fire.

There were reports that drugs were being used at the time the fire broke out, Tiu added.

Lanilyn Montalban, a Market 3 resident, said she was asleep when flames started licking the walls of her house. She and her husband managed to get out quickly with their children as their roof also caught fire.

“We were not able to save any of our belongings,” said Montalban, whose family had taken shelter in a leaky tent outside the complex.

Mayor John Rey Tiangco said the fire victims would temporarily stay inside two covered courts near the site. “It is up to PDFA to decide where to relocate the families because the lot belongs to them and not the city government,” he added.

Novicio said the police had started securing the area based on orders from fish port officials and the maritime police who said that “residents would not be allowed to go back.”

“They will be relocated elsewhere,” the city police chief said.

A big fire also hit the area in 2007, leaving two children dead and 400 families homeless. Many residents then blamed the fire on a cat that knocked over a kerosene lamp.