Fire in Makati shanty town razes 900 homes
In congested urban communities, a small act of carelessness can produce an inferno, which is what may have happened in an old section of Makati at midday Tuesday when an estimated 900 homes burned down, injuring at least nine people, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
A report on GMA News' "24 Oras" Tuesday night quoted the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as saying that the fire may have resulted from a rice cooker that was left unattended.
An initial NDRRMC report stated that P9 million worth of property was destroyed in Tuesday noon's fire in a vast and crowded urban poor community in Guadalupe Viejo, Makati. Traffic along EDSA was tied up for hours Tuesday afternoon as a result of the blaze.
Several thousand homeless spent the night on the streets and in a parking lot.
"The fire affected more or less 2,700 families, leaving nine injured and burned approximately 900 houses. The cost of damage is estimated at PhP9,000,000.00," it said in its initial report Tuesday night.
It said the fire started at 11:59 a.m. and razed shanties made of light materials at the Laperal Compound in Guadalupe Viejo village in Makati City.
SYRIAN security forces are said to have fired on crowds yesterday as anti-government protesters staged a sit-in.
An activist in the city of Homs said: “They shot at everything. I saw people on the ground, some shot in their feet, some in the stomach.”
Bullets and tear gas were fired at 2am, after demonstrators had gathered with mattresses and food in the central Clock Square, vowing an Egypt-style stand-off until President Bashar Assad stepped down. It is unknown how many were killed or injured.
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The Syrian government previously blamed the unrest on “armed gangs” and fundamentalist Muslims.
In Tunisia, relatives of a fruit seller who set himself alight after a policewoman confiscated his wares, sparking the first of the Arab world uprisings, have dropped charges against her.
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/04/20/syrian-security-forces-fire-bullets-and-tear-gas-at-homs-protesters-115875-23073305/#ixzz1K2JLyn4j
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