Philippines: Fire In Garment Store Kills 17 Workers

MANILA, Philippines -- An inferno at a three-story clothing store in the southern Philippines early Wednesday killed 17 employees, all women who were sleeping on the top floor, police said.

Three women managed to dash out of a burning room and groped their way down three floors in darkness but found that the main steel door in the building in downtown Butuan city was locked, police investigator Jonathan Basil said.

Bystanders used a hydraulic car jack to pry open the gate and pulled the three screaming women out from the burning lobby, Basil said.

"The women kept on pounding the hot steel gate while yelling for help," Basil told The Associated Press by telephone, adding that the employee who kept the door key perished in the room upstairs.

Mylene Tulo, one of three who escaped, said she woke up as the fire spread rapidly in the third-floor room where they slept. She managed to dash out with two colleagues. All three sustained minor burns on their arms.

"We wanted to rouse others from sleep, but the fire was already too strong," a stunned Tulo said.

Investigators were trying to determine what sparked the fire, which broke out at 3:55 a.m. and raged for five hours, city police chief Pedro Obaldo said.

Many stores in the Philippines allow their employees to sleep over, especially those from faraway homes.

Relatives and friends failed to identify any of the 17 badly burned bodies at a funeral home and were asked to bring dental records or anything that could help authorities establish the identities of the dead.

The building in Agusan del Norte province in the southern Mindanao region was a theater before being turned into a commercial center with several stores, including the Novo Jeans and Shirts, where the victims died.

A lack of firefighting equipment and personnel coupled with safety violations has resulted in major fire disasters in the Philippines, especially in shantytowns. Butuan is a city of more than 300,000 about 790 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Manila.

Loading Slideshow

• Firefighters battle the blaze in an early morning fire Wednesday, May 9, 2012 in Butuan City in Mindana island, southern Philippines. The inferno at the three-storey clothing store killed at least 17 employees, most of whom were women who were asleep and trapped on the top floor, officials said. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

• Firefighters battle the blaze in an early morning fire Wednesday, May 9, 2012 in Butuan City in Mindana island, southern Philippines. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

• Volunteers carry a plastic bag containing a body out of a burnt store after a fire Wednesday, May 9, 2012 in Butuan city, on Mindanao island in southern Philippines. (AP Photo/Erwin Mascarinas)

Comments

[lscohen]

07:42 PM on 05/23/2012

Oh my G-d. I cannot believe this happened. It brings back the memory of the dress factory in NYC many years ago that killed most every woman working there. Again, the doors were locked!

[blogerko]

05:43 PM on 05/09/2012

So sad,death at the work

[Burden of Truth]

10:48 AM on 05/09/2012

And isn't this exactly what the GOP wants

the Joys of deregulation

[builderman55]

09:45 AM on 05/09/2012

Can you say," Triangle Shirtwaist Fire?"

[gunthli]

08:22 AM on 05/09/2012

I went to Manilla about 15 years ago and across the street, they were getting the materials ready for the building farther down the street. I was freaked out by the lack of safety and how they treated their workers. There were no automated vehicles (bulldozers, etc.) to assist in the assembly so they were building this building literally by hand. They also lived there in tiny houses (about 8X8) above the work site that looked like they were going to fall down any minute. Some of the families lived there too. They wore shorts, sandals, and t shirts - not even hard hats. They were assembling materials and bending rebar by HAND. I was totally freaked out by this.

When we ventured outside of Manilla, all the towns were shanty towns with tiny little houses ( not that much bigger than the workers homes and entire families lived in them. They were made out of corrogated metal), but there was always a gleaming Catholic church in every town. There was sewage and waste water running on the curb in every town and the children were frolicking in it. GROSS!

See next comment.

[olrasquel]

09:49 AM on 05/09/2012

Not all of the PI is the way you described it.

[godsamyth]

11:49 AM on 05/09/2012

an awful lot is although there are changes, i regard the philipines as mostly primitive with foreign technology. of the years of occupation by the spanish and americans there has been little inovation since the yoyo.. they could do with less churches and more contraception.until religion looses its grip there will be little progress amonst philipinos their aim is short term which doesn,t make for a solid future

[Sidley]

11:19 AM on 05/09/2012

Thank your lucky stars you live in America. Much of the rest of the world lives like this and they are the only ones who can change it. It isn't a Republican thing and you are ignorant if you believe that. These people were most likely very glad to have those jobs and probably realized the risk. They love and support their church and just because you disagree doesn't make you right. May they rest in peace. As you live out this day do the next right thing and leave the Philippians to grieve their tragedy. The next one could be ours.

[Cacey]

08:21 AM on 05/09/2012

This is exactly why we have regulations in the United States, the same regulations that the Republicans are rebeling against.

[daultman463]

09:14 AM on 05/09/2012

cc

[gunthli]

08:20 AM on 05/09/2012

In Manilla they had brown outs every day and the diesel generators would kick on in the afternoon. I came home everyday smelling like diesel fuel and garlic (they eat very seasoned meals). I was teaching a class there and all the Aussies were asking me what we were eating. Like I would know? Even when we asked what it was, we still didn't know. I looked forward to breakfast (cereal and mangos) because it would be the only meal all day that I could identify. ugh. I couldn't wear my contacts because of the diesel smog and I wasn't aware of how blazing hot it was there (110-120 everyday! I couldn't wait to get home!

[wa0cal]

07:28 AM on 05/09/2012

This is a terrible tragedy

[godsamyth]

03:01 PM on 05/09/2012

when you cross anywhere by ferry you very often get three ticket offices something foreigners find baffling, a neat way for job creation but surely it could be managed differently. when you cross anywhere by way of those outrigers getting on and off by way of an 8 inch wide board is ridiculous when there are so many men sitting there doing nothing it just needs a little bit of brain power if there is any

[Oakland]

06:55 AM on 05/09/2012

"The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City on March 25, 1911 was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city of New York and resulted in the fourth highest loss of life from an industrial accident in U.S. history. It was also the second deadliest disaster in New York City – after the burning of the General Slocum on June 15, 1904 – until the destruction of the World Trade Center 90 years later. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers, who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling to their deaths. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three;[1][2][3] the oldest victim was 48, the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls.[4]
Because the managers had locked the doors to the stairwells and exits – a common practice at the time to prevent pilferage and unauthorized breaks[5] – many of the workers who could not escape the burning building jumped from the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors to the streets below. The fire led to legislation requiring improved factory safety standards and helped spur the growth of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire

[inmyelement]

08:38 AM on 05/09/2012

PBS told this story not too long ago on its AMERICAN EXPERIENCE program. It was a sad story of greed on the part of the owners with tragic results. Corporate greed still rages today, though I suppose we can be grateful that the consequences today have not caused such great loss of life.

BTW the program can be seen online at the PBS website

[Oakland]

06:53 AM on 05/09/2012

Sweat shops.... You are looking as US history, and its future. Corporations out of control, in charge of our economy and lives, masters and owners of our political process, and workers a commodity to use, abuse, and dump when you're done with them.

[eric14]

08:25 AM on 05/09/2012

Yes. A tragic result of small government not enforcing regulations. BIG GOVERNMENT saves lives.

[1differentdrummer]

06:51 AM on 05/09/2012

That's like the US in the early 1900s. The workers get killed. How terribly sad.

[Meldy1]

05:00 AM on 05/09/2012

Sad,very sad and these people are so poor....life is cruel.

[olrasquel]

09:52 AM on 05/09/2012

What you say is partly true. Regardless, they seem to be happy people.

[Meldy1]

10:23 AM on 05/09/2012

I have been in Manila and Luzon for vacation 4 weeks,I saw it I have given money to some!