Fire destroys more than 1,000 homes in Philippine shantytown

A massive blaze tore through a coastal shantytown in the Philippine capital, scorching makeshift wooden homes and spreading rapidly between the densel...

A massive blaze tore through a coastal shantytown in the Philippine capital, scorching makeshift wooden homes and spreading rapidly between the densely packed structures.

The fire destroyed more than 1,000 structures in eight hours in the city’s Tondo district before firefighters extinguished it Sunday, Manila’s disaster management office said. As of Monday, disaster management officials said there were no known casualties.

Disaster management officials said the neighborhood, an informal settlement wedged along a narrow strip between the city’s port and Manila Bay, was vulnerable to fire, and aerial footage showed how quickly the flames spread.

Alain Thomas R. Matias, a spokesman for Manila’s disaster management office, said the scorched homes were constructed from scavenged materials, mainly wood, and balanced on stilts above the water. "It’s like you lit up a box of matches,” he wrote in an email Monday.

Photographs showed residents fleeing by boat with their belongings as firefighters battled the blaze with hoses.