Fire Kills 5 Bakery Workers İn Philippines

Five female employees were killed Sunday when a fire broke out at a bakery in the northern Philippine province of Batangas.



Sr. Insp. Apolinario Lunar Jr., police chief in the tourist town of Taal, told ABS-CBN News that the victims were trapped in a room with a locked door on the second floor of the building housing the bakery.



They had been sleeping when the building burst into flames. Their remains were recovered after firefighters put the blaze under control.



According to the initial investigation, there had been a short circuit on an electric post located near the building.



Deadly fires are common in the Philippines, where fire safety regulations are not strictly observed by businesses and factories.



In May, at least 72 people were killed when a fire broke out at a footwear factory in a suburb of the capital, Manila.



The blaze was the second deadliest in the country's recent history, after a fire at a nightclub in Quezon City on March 17, 1996 left 162 people dead.



On Nov. 20 last year, nine men -- seven former safety officials and two businessmen – were sentenced to between six and 10 years in jail on charges relating to the Ozone Disco Club accident.



An estimated 400 people, mostly high school and college students celebrating the end of the academic year, were inside the building when the fire broke out. Many of the blackened bodies were found piled waist-high in a corridor leading to the only exit.



The high death toll was attributed to the building's structural faults and lack of fire safety measures at the disco, which had passed city inspections. - Zamboanga