4,000 homeless, 1 girl killed in Manila slum fire

[StarfarerBill]

Source: Associated Press

MANILA, Philippines – Fire raced through a slum near the main port in the Philippine capital, leaving 4,000 people homeless and killing a 5-year-old girl, an official said Sunday.

The Saturday night blaze gutted 500 shanties, which were packed together in a crowded slum along the rim of Manila Bay, some housing two or three families. There were no other reports of deaths or major injuries at the Baseco Compound, Senior Fire Officer Emmanuel Gaspar said.

The 53-hectare (130-acre) compound that used to house a shipyard has been ravaged by huge fires before. A 2002 blaze left some 15,000 residents homeless, and a 2004 fire razed shanties of 25,000 people. Tight living conditions at Baseco and other slums allow flames to quickly spread through houses made of light materials.

The cause of the fire, which raged for two hours, fanned by strong winds, is still under investigation, Gaspar said. An Associated Press photographer at the site saw people waiting to be treated for minor injuries, including wounds from glass shards.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100117/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_fire

[Robb]

1. Here's a photo gallery

...not of this fire, but to see what conditions are like. Ripe for a bad fire, amazing only one death, frankly.

More photos here

[Delphinus]

5. Oh my.

These photos, and the little stories with them, just break my heart.

[izquierdista]

2. The cause? Poverty

The same reason as all the deaths in Haiti -- these people aren't worth anything to capitalists and governments run by capitalists. They are only a source of cheap labor, and if this source dries up, capital will flit somewhere else in search of poor to exploit.

[Codeine]

3. Poverty predates capitalism,

and would unlikely disappear if capitalism were to go the way of the dodo.

That said, I'd certainly not mourn capitalism's passing.

[izquierdista]

4. Capitalism ain't the way out of it

But I have traveled to a few socialist type places, and it's a lot harder to find poverty there.