29 killed after fire rips through Philippine ferry

Philippine rescuers searched the smouldering ruins of a burnt-out ferry yesterday for any survivors or more victims of a fire that swept through the inter-island vessel killing 29 people, including a six-month-old baby, authorities said.
Investigators have yet to identify the cause of the fire that started at about 11pm (1500GMT) on Wednesday off the southern island of Basilan, when many passengers were asleep in air-conditioned cabins on the ferry’s lower deck.
“I thought I was dreaming but when I opened my eyes it was dark and we were surrounded by smoke,” Mina Nani, 46, a passenger on the MV Lady Mary Joy 3, told DZRH radio.
She said she survived by jumping off the vessel and sharing a floatation device with another passenger until they were rescued.
There were conflicting figures of the number of people on the ferry, which officials said was not overloaded.
The coast guard said 225 people including 36 crew were rescued.
Eleven people, including three children, drowned after jumping off the burning ship, while 18 died in the blaze on board, governor Hadjiman Hataman Salliman told DZRH.
“We have yet to explore the entire ship because it’s still hot,” Salliman said of the beached vessel.
Firefighter Jayson Ahijon, who was among the passengers, said people panicked as fire and thick smoke overwhelmed the vessel. Some jumped overboard before putting on life jackets. “It’s beyond my imagination, the fire was spreading so fast,” Ahijon, 36, said.
Commodore Rejard Marfe, coast guard chief in the Mindanao region, told Reuters there was “chaos” after the spreading fire roused people from their sleep and the 18 victims found onboard were “totally burnt”.
The captain ran the vessel aground as the fire spread “so many more could survive since it would be easier to swim to shore”, Marfe added.
Coast guard investigators will inspect the ferry and determine the cause of the fire.
Survivors were taken to Zamboanga and Basilan, where the injured were treated for burns, Salliman said.
The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor record for maritime safety, with vessels often overcrowded and many ageing ships in use.
In May, at least seven people died in a fire on a high-speed ferry carrying 134 people.
In 1987, about 5,000 people died in the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster, when an overloaded passenger ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island south of the capital, Manila.