The toll from one of the deadliest industrial fires in Philippine history rose to 72 on Thursday, officials said, as firefighters carried one body bag after another out of the blackened remnants of a slipper factory.
The fire started Wednesday when welders working on the Kentex Manufacturing Corporation’s metal front gate ignited nearby chemicals used in the company’s manufacture of rubber slippers, said Mayor Rex Gatchalian of Valenzuela, the suburban city north of Manila where the blaze took place.
“The situation happened very fast,” said the city spokesman, Rhay R. Sousa. “Some people had to jump from the building to escape.”
As of Thursday afternoon, 10 factory workers were still missing, Mr. Sousa said. The intense heat of the chemical fire that engulfed the building weakened the walls and second floor, making it difficult for firefighters to enter the structure and search for bodies, he said.
The bodies that have been recovered were burned beyond recognition, Mr. Gatchalian said. On Thursday afternoon, relatives of employees were undertaking the grim task of filling out forms that specify tattoos, scars, birthmarks, dental features, fingers missing and other characteristics that could help identify the remains.
City and fire officials said it was too early to determine who was at fault in the fire and whether there were violations of city safety codes, but labour activist groups in the country took to the streets of Manila on Wednesday and staged a brief protest, calling for an investigation of the factory owners.
“Were there sufficient fire exits?” said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of the activist organization Bayan. “Were there enough fire extinguishers inside the factory? Were fire drills previously conducted by the factory? Were inspections previously conducted by the relevant government agencies? Was there criminal negligence on the part of the factory owners and the government inspectors?”
Kentex was compliant with occupational safety requirements as of its latest inspection in September 2014, said Sonny Coloma, a spokesman for President Benigno S. Aquino III. The company has a labor union with 33 members out of its overall 54 employees and maintains a safety committee, he said.
More than 40 officers from the Philippine National Police’s forensic examination team were dispatched to the scene on Thursday to gather evidence, police officials said.
“Many of those retrieved were reduced to skulls and bones,” the national police chief, Leonardo Espina, said during a news conference. “Someone will definitely be charged because of the deaths. It doesn’t matter if it’s an accident, people died. Right now, we are investigating to clearly determine what happened.”
The city of Valenzuela is home to hundreds of small factories that produce inexpensive items for sale in the local market. Kentex produced low-cost rubber “flip-flop” slippers. The factories that manufacture products that are not for export are generally not as stringently monitored as those that make items for export in partnership with international companies, according to labour activists.
The worst fire in recent history in the Philippines killed more than 150 people in 1996 when hundreds of people were trapped inside the Ozone Disco in a Manila suburb. In 1975, 42 workers were killed on the upper floors of a wig factory in the eastern Manila town of Marikina when fire engulfed the building.
