Fire kills 16 people in Bacolod City - official

(Update 11:46 a.m.) An official said 16 people, including children, have been killed in a fire that swept through a residential building as people slept in a slum community in the central Philippine city of Bacolod. Fire marshal Pamela Candido said the fire started after midnight Monday. The blaze gutted a wooden two-story apartment building and more than 60 shanties in central Bacolod city. Candido said an investigation is under way to determine the cause of the fire, adding all the fatalities have been identified. An earlier report by radio dzBB's Bacolod affiliate said four of the fatalities were children and that the fire in Barangay 19 displaced 3,000 people who are now sheltered at a nearby elementary school. Light materials The fire started at 1:19 a.m. Monday, and was placed under control at 3:30 a.m., the radio report said. Local authorities have no positive identification yet of all those charred in the fire, which according to firefighters, hit a thickly populated area with houses made of light materials. They also pointed out that many of the structures there were boarding houses. Arson investigators are now verifying information that the fire started at a boarding house owned by one Morita Depacaquibo. - with a report from AP, GMANews.TV