Manila: Twelve people were killed in a huge
fire that razed some 100 houses in a poor residential area in
the Philippine capital on Sunday, authorities said.
Investigators said the fire at suburban Navotas city,
north of Manila, began before midnight yesterday and raged for
about five hours.
City fire marshal Felis Medes said 11 people who were
trapped in the burning structures were killed, while another
person died in hospital while being treated.
"Five of those killed were children," he told reporters.
Arson investigators said they had yet to determine the
cause of the blaze.
Radio reports quoted witnesses as saying that a mentally
disturbed resident was seen playing with petrol in one of the
burnt houses earlier in the day.
PTI
