Child dies, 50 families lose homes in Manila fire

(Updated 8:48 a.m.) One child died while at least 50 families lost their homes in a predawn fire that razed a row of “apartments" in Manila’s Sampaloc district early Tuesday, a radio report said. Radio dzBB’s Carlo Mateo reported the body of one-and-a-half-year-old Raiza Dellaque was found in charred rubble caused by the fire that started at an apartment unit. Dellaque’s mother Rachel said she left the child with her husband so she can go to work, adding that her husband was out of the house at the time of the fire. DzBB reported the fire started past 5 a.m. on the Third Floor of an apartment at 940 Quezon Boulevard in Sampaloc. "Siguro mga 50 families ang nawalan (We estimate some 50 families lost their homes in the fire)," the report quoted a village watchman as saying. The fire, which occurred across the city's Central Market, snarled traffic at the nearby underpass and along Lerma Street and Quezon Boulevard. Vehicles from the Quiapo area heading to the Central Market and students going to schools along the University Belt area were trapped in traffic. Initial investigation showed the fire started at the unit of one Rodolfo Lindo. Some 10 apartment units housing at least four families were razed in the fire, the dzBB report said. According to the report, firefighters had a hard time getting into the area because of the narrow streets there, which were already clogged with belongings of residents affected by the fire. The fire reached the fourth alarm before firefighters put it out at 6:40 a.m. — LBG, GMANews.TV