9 rescued from burning building in Quiapo

Firefighters successfully rescued nine people, including six children, from a burning three-story building yesterday morning in Quiapo, Manila.

The residents were trapped at the third floor of the gutted Blanco building, a residential-commercial establishment on Carlos Palanca street.

With their ladders, Manila firemen individually pulled out the trapped people through a hole they bore through the roof of the building. Most of the victims suffered from smoke inhalation.

Arson investigator SFO2 Wilson Tana said the fire started at the Aida & Billy’s Handicraft store on the ground floor of the building at around 9:25 a.m. Aida Casaljay, who owns the store, also owns the building, Tana said. There are reports that the fire started when a buyer accidentally threw a lit cigarette onto a heap of handicrafts.

The fire reached the fifth alarm before it was finally put out at around 12:52 p.m.

Firefighters had a hard time scaling the top of the building since the morning rain had made the walls and roof slippery. The trapped tenants, who were waving and shouting for help, failed to get out of the building since smoke enveloped practically the entire structure.

Tana identified the rescued tenants as Kate, 11; John Maverick, 11; Neil Stephen, 12; Tom, 13; and Ralph Kevin, 15, all surnamed Isla; Kate Tan, 10; and her father Ton, 50; Antonio Salas, 25; and a still unidentified woman who was unconscious due to smoke inhalation by the time she was rescued. The victims were rushed to the Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center.

Tana said he is also looking into faulty electrical connections as the cause of the fire. Damage to property was placed at P1 million.