A huge fire in a Manila shantytown early on Monday hurt at least 23 people, destroyed thousands of homes and left about 25Â 000 residents homeless, disaster relief officials said. No deaths were reported.
The blaze broke out before midnight (4pm GMT) on Sunday in the impoverished Tondo district and raged for more than seven hours, spreading through 18ha of the 53ha compound of the former Baseco shipyard.
The fire is believed to have been set off by a gas tank that exploded, officials said.
Firefighters struggled to reach the blaze in the overcrowded area where ramshackle homes line passageways that are too narrow for firetrucks to pass, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.
Twenty-seven firetrucks and a navy fire boat on a nearby river assisted in the operation.
At least 23 people were taken to hospital for injuries, but no deaths have been reported so far, the Office of Civil Defence said.
At least 2Â 500 homes burned down, leaving 5Â 006 families — or 25Â 030 people — homeless, it added.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo arrived at the scene early on Monday to supervise the setting up of a temporary shelter and distribution of relief supplies. She consoled many victims, Soliman said.
She said Arroyo ordered food and clothes to be handed out and for community kitchens to be opened.
”The city of Manila is rich, so they will lead in giving assistance, but if the need is great and they can not do it alone, the national government will come in,” Arroyo told ABS-CBN television during her visit to the devastated area.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita, also head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, reported later in the day that eight evacuation centres have been set up for displaced families, and more evacuation facilities might be put up as the need arises.
Television footage showed grief-stricken families, including young children, milling around the compound with a few bundles of clothes and meagre belongings saved from the blaze.
”We lost our home, everything was gutted, nothing was left,” a crying woman told ABS-CBN. — Sapa-AP