Four hundred families were rendered homeless after a four-hour fire razed down some 200 shanties in a depressed community near the train tracks of Barangay Putatan in Muntinlupa City.
The city government has been providing assistance to the displaced families by distributing food and medicine and setting up a temporary shelter for them in an adjacent vacant lot. Muntinlupa City fire station inspector Joseph Llames reported that fewer than a dozen residents were injured in the fire that broke at around 6:20 p.m. in Purok 1, Marquez Compound last Saturday.
The fire official pegged damages at over P2.5 million. He added that 400 families have been affected by the fire which they tried to contain by positioning themselves from across a creek.
The four-hour blaze caused heavy traffic along the national road near Putatan and Poblacion in Muntinlupa City. Philippine National Railway operations were not affected, Inquirer.net reported.
At least one major fire occurs in depressed areas in Muntinlupa City every year – leaving hundreds of families homeless and sending millions of pesos up in smoke. Local officials say this is because of the thousands of shanties that are built with light and often flammable materials.
