by Our Foreign Desk

DOZENS of workers were missing and feared dead yesterday after a horrific fire at a rubber flip-flop factory in the Filipino capital Manila.

The blaze apparently broke out when sparks from welding work being carried out on the front door ignited chemicals.

Speaking outside the gutted building, local Mayor Rex Gatchalian told gathered crowds that no-one inside the building had survived, provoking howls of grief and weeping.

“By the time they realised that they could pass through the main door, the flames were already engulfing the front area,” he said, adding that they thought the second floor offered refuge from the flames.

Families reported that 65 were missing, saying that their relatives were able to send text messages from the second floor at first, but then contact was lost.

It took firefighters around five hours to extinguish the inferno. Three bodies had been recovered by yesterday afternoon, including that of the factory owner’s niece.

Mr Gatchalian said that seven people were known to have escaped the factory through the back door, adding that others may have got out.

He appealed to relatives to contact the homes of other family members in hope of finding the missing workers alive, saying: “There might still be a chance.”

District fire marshall Wilberto Rico Neil Kwan Tiu said he was among the first to reach the second floor after the fire and saw bodies charred beyond recognition.

He confirmed that the building did have fire exits, but suggested that the workers had been overwhelmed by the thick black smoke from the burning rubber and chemicals.

Mr Gatchalian said an investigation had been launched.