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8 dead after Christmas Day fires in Philippines
MANILA, PHILIPPINES, December 25, 2012

Authorities in the Philippines say at least eight people are dead after two separate Christmas Day fires in the capital region. One of the blazes left about 1,500 people homeless when it razed their shantytown.
Arson investigator Rosendo Cabillan says a pre-dawn fire on Tuesday razed two apartment buildings in Quezon City, a Manila suburb. A veterinarian and six household members died after they were trapped inside.
Fire officer Noel Binwag says another blaze in suburban San Juan city hours earlier destroyed shanties of about 1,500 people. http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/8-dead-after-christmas-day-fires-in-philippines/article4238380.ece 3 Fires Hit Metro Manila
March 19, 2012

MANILA, Philippines — Two fires hit residential areas in Quezon City and San Juan the other night.A fire hit a residential area in Don Antonio Heights, Quezon City. The fire reportedly started at 10:15 p.m.Rudy Padirao, 37, sustained burns on both arms as he went back inside their burning house to salvage some of their valuables. Witnesses told fire probers that the injured victim and his family had already exited their house safely but went back inside.Some 25 houses were destroyed by the fire which reached the 5th alarm and was placed under control at around 10:30 p.m. As a result, 75 families were rendered homeless. Firemen were told that a lit candle that was placed at an altar might have caused the fire.They have yet to confirm this theory as they conduct an investigation on the cause of the fire.Meanwhile, a fire destroyed 10 houses in San Jose Street, Barangay Batis, San Juan at 4:56 a.m.Fire Chief Inspector Gilbert Dulot said that the fire reached the 2nd alarm and was eventually put out at 6:04 a.m. Despite the loss of property, there was no one hurt or killed during the fire.Some 10 San Juan City residential houses were razed by fire yesterday morning.The Bureau of Fire Protection- San Juan City reported the fire originated from the house at 82 San Jose corner San Pablo Streets in Barangay Batis and started at 4:56 a.m. yesterday.Fire quickly razed down the affected house but first responders at the incident prevented the spread of fire which only reached 2nd alarm.Fire Chief Marshall Gilbert Dolot declared the fire out at 6:04 a.m. No one was reported hurt or injured and there were no reported casualties in the incident. The cost of damages and cause of the fire is still under investigation.Meanwhile, the fire affecting the Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall in Caloocan City still rages at presstime, but has already been declared under control by firefighters.Caloocan Fire Chief, Fire Supt. Oscar De Asis said that the fire was declared under control at 11:45 p.m.The fire has been raging for around 30 hours and has shown no indication that it might be put out soon.As late as 9 a.m. certain pockets of the mall are still being consumed by fire, especially the upper floors. Because of this, firefighters have resorted to using aerial ladders to access the upper floors of the said mall which are still being destroyed by flames.Aside from this, firefighters from Valenzuela City were forced to destroy a glass wall of a sports supplies store to be able to access an area in the first floor that was then being gutted down by the fire.So far, 17 persons were reported injured, among them fire volunteers: Renato Sabar and Mark Jeffrey Lucdan, while a policeman, Police Officer 2 Noel Sanggalang was also injured. Both fire volunteers suffered cuts on the palm while the policeman suffered a cut on the arm. Fire investigators pegged the estimated damage to property at P500,000.Stall owners, who have maintained their "vigil" in the vicinity of the mall, are hopeful that they may eventually be allowed to enter to save whatever is left of their wares.The Caloocan City Police operatives deployed to provide security in the area have disallowed anyone to enter so as to prevent possible looting and to protect those who insist on entering from harm's way. The thick black smoke billowing from certain areas of the mall continue to be offensive to the eyes and may possibly cause suffocation to anyone who is exposed to it for a long period of time.

18 killed in S. Philippine fire May 9, 2012

Six more bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble, bringing to 18 the number of fatalities in Wednesday's fire that razed a commercial complex in southern Philippines, police said.
At least four people are still missing and are believed to be trapped under the collapsed building in downtown Butuan City, in Mindanao's Agusan del Norte province, according to Superintendent Martin Gamba, Caraga police regional spokesperson.
"So far, 18 bodies have already been retrieved. Police and rescuers are still searching for at least four more reportedly trapped," Gamba told Xinhua by mobile phone.
An investigation is now underway following allegations that most of the victims, all stay-in salesladies of the commercial center owned by Chinese-Filipino trader Boy Tan, were not able to escape as the door leading out of the establishment was padlocked twice.
Most of the dead were employees of local apparel retailer Novo Jeans and Shirts.
Three salesgirls were able to flee from the fire when it broke out around 3 a.m. by jumping out of the fire exit located in the building's second floor. Those who made out alive suffered injuries and had to be rushed to a local hospital for treatment, Gamba said. Firefighters were able to control the blaze after over three hours, he added.The tragedy was considered one of the worst fire incidents in southern Philippines in recent years, authorities said. http://www.china.org.cn/world/2012-05/09/content_25340499.htm 17 dead in Philippine department store fire
Wed, May 9, 2012

Seventeen shop staff sleeping in a Philippines department store were killed when a fire swept through the building before dawn on Wednesday, local authorities said.
Twenty-one female employees were trapped in the fire, with one person still missing and three surviving by jumping from a second-storey window, the provincial fire department said.
Eleven bodies were recovered soon after the fire was put out, Chief Inspector Mario Palarca told AFP.
Investigators later found six other corpses, one of his aides said.
"Twenty-one people were asleep on the second floor when the fire struck the ground floor. They could not find the emergency exit because of the huge volume of black smoke," Palarca said by telephone.
Saleswoman Vicky Belez, one of the survivors, said she only survived because she was in the bathroom when the fire broke out.
"I was in the bathroom. Then I saw the huge flames outside so I ran out immediately. There was a lot of smoke and the flames were already huge," the 21-year-old said as doctors treated her burned arms.Cashier Mylene Tolo, 22, said she narrowly made it out despite the blinding smoke and large flames, which left her with scorched arms."We were able to escape the fire because we were awakened by a loud explosion," she said.The fire occurred in a three-storey department store in Butuan, a city of 300,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/11-dead-philippine-department-store-fire-031128154.html
Tondo fire leaves 2,000 f amilies homless
Saturday, May 12th, 2012

MANILA, Philippines – Manila arson investigators are trying to track down on Saturday the owner of a hovel where a fire that razed an entire shantytown in Tondo’s Isla Puting Bato and left some 2,000 families homeless on Friday afternoon is believed to have started.
Manila Fire Marshall Superintendent Felix Abrenica told the Philippinen Daily Inquirer they were trying to locate Arturo Salapudin, owner of the shanty at Block 1, Purok I, Isla Puting Bato in Tondo, to try to piece together what triggered Friday’s conflgration, which drew all available firefighting units in Metro Manila as well as the Philippine Coast Guard.
Abrenica added that arson investigators have not yet determined what caused the fire, which destroyed about 500 houses and left more than 5,400 people homeless.
He said at least five persons, including a fireman and three minors, were injured. Wounded were Senior Insp. Reggie Olmedo; Joel Bumaray; and three minors, a 2-year-old and two 14-year-old boys.
Reports from the Manila Fire District revealed that the fire started from Salapudin’s home at around 4:10 p.m. Friday and was completely put out at 10:49 p.m.
The Philippine Coast Guard helped in the rescue as some residents of the compound, estimated to to house up to 3,000 families, jumped into makeshift boats on Manila Bay to escape from the flames.
The PCG rescued more than 100 people from the water.
The 2,000 families affected by the fire were temporarily sheltered at the Del Pan Sports Complex where Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and other city officials paid them a visit to distribute relief goods, used clothes, mats and blankets.
Lim directed the local social welfare department to ensure that the victims of the fire are fed three times a day.
The mayor handed out financial assistance to the affected families and asked the public to extend help to the victims.
He assured the victims that a relocation site awaited them in Barrio Gayagaya in San Jose, Del Monte, Bulacan. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/192247/tondo-fire-leaves-2000-families-homless Brazil nightclub fire kills more than 230 people
28 JAN, 2013

BRASILIA: Flames raced through a crowded nightclubin southern Brazil early Sunday, killing more than 230 people as panicked partygoers gasped for breath in the smoke-filled air, stampeding toward a single exit partially blocked by those already dead. It appeared to be the world's deadliest nightclub fire in more than a decade.
Witnesses said a flare or firework lit by band members may have started the blaze.
Television images showed smoke pouring out of the Kiss nightclub as shirtless young men who had attended a university party joined firefighters using axes and sledgehammers to pound at windows and walls to free those trapped inside.
Guido Pedroso Melo, commander of the city's fire department, told the O Globo newspaper that firefighters had a hard time getting inside the club because "there was a barrier of bodies blocking the entrance."
Teenagers sprinted from the scene desperately seeking help. Others carried injured and burned friends away in their arms.
"There was so much smoke and fire, it was complete panic, and it took a long time for people to get out, there were so many dead," survivor Luana Santos Silva told the Globo TV network.
The fire spread so fast inside the packed club that firefighters and ambulances could do little to stop it, Silva said.
Another survivor, Michele Pereira, told the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper that she was near the stage when members of the band lit flares that started the conflagration.
"The band that was onstage began to use flares and, suddenly, they stopped the show and pointed them upward," she said. "At that point, the ceiling caught fire. It was really weak, but in a matter of seconds it spread." Guitarist Rodrigo Martins told Radio Gaucha that the band, Gurizada Fandangueira, started playing at 2:15 a.m. "and we had played around five songs when I looked up and noticed the roof was burning"

Firefighters battle plywood factory fire for 8 hours January 28, 2013 | |

SAMANA, India — A plywood factory situated at Ghagga bypass in Samana was gutted in an inferno that lasted for hours, damaging goods worth lakhs.
The fire was controlled only after five hours of struggle by the firefighters and fire tenders which were called in from various other towns.
The fire brigade officials said the intensity of the blaze was so huge that fire fighting vehicles had to be called from Samana, Patiala and Sangrur.They said the fire occurred at about 2 a.m. in the morning and it could be controlled by 10 a.m.According to fire man Ramchandra from Patiala fire brigade team, information on the fire at Samana bypass was given early morning and a team was dispatched to Radhika Enterprises plywood factory in Samana at about 2:45 a.m.A team from Samana fire brigade was already at work when the team from Patiala reached there. After some time a team from Sangrur also joined the other two teams in controlling the fire. All the three teams took about five to six hours in dousing the flames.Ramchandra informed that the factory did not have the facility of storing water and due to this the firemen faced a tough time in controlling the situation.He stated that the factory did not have enough space for the firefighting vehicles to stand. These are the reasons due to which the attempt to control the fire took time.Raman Kumar, owner of the factory, stated that Teg Bahadur, the watchman of the factory, saw smoke coming out of the factory at about 2:30 am and he informed the police as well as the fire brigade.
Kumar stated that the fire had spread when city in-charge S.K. Sikandar, SDM Sukhwinder Singh Gill, reached the spot.
He added that by the time the firemen managed to control the fire, goods worth lakhs of rupees had turned to ashes. http://www.firerescue1.com/fire-attack/articles/1397794-Firefighters-battle-plywood-factory-fire-for-8-hours/ 26 killed in blaze at Mexican gas facility near border
September 18, 2012

Mexico City (CNN) -- At least 26 workers died in a blaze Tuesday at a Mexican gas facility near the Texas border, the state oil company Pemex said.
Investigators were working to determine what caused the accident, which occurred near Reynosa, Mexico.
Four of the dead were employees of the state oil company and 22 were contractors, Pemex said.
The fire, which occurred after a blast at the facility, had been extinguished as of Tuesday afternoon, the company said in a Twitter post.
"The fire is extinguished, and the situation is under control," Pemex said.
Some pipes and valves were damaged, Pemex said.
At the facility, gas is processed from Mexico's Burgos field.
In recent years, explosions and fires have been reported after illegal tapping of the state oil company's pipelines.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/18/world/americas/mexico-refinery-explosion/index.html

Pakistan garment factory fires

Garment factories in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore caught fire on 11 September 2012. The fires occurred in a textile factory in the western part of Karachi and in a shoemaking factory in Lahore. The fires are considered to be the most deadly and worst industrial factory fires in Pakistan's history,[3] killing 315 people and seriously injuring more than 250.[4][5][6]One of the factory owners in Karachi, Arshad Bhaila, claimed that the fire first broke out in the warehouse and he himself called the fire brigade, which arrived about an hour and a half late. New York times reported 75 minutes delay in arrival of fire department.[17]A judicial inquiry into the incidence headed by Justice Zahid Qurban Alvi released its report to public citing short circuit as the cause of the fire. The report cited several factors that exacerbated the situation leading to the loss of precious lives as the late arrival of fire tenders, the lack of water hydrants and traffic congestion. The sources said that the tribunal was highly critical of the factory owners and government institutions, which failed to ensure the implementation of laws. It also criticized the police’s forensic department for failing to conduct a scientific assessment of the incident.[18]On 14 September, Justice Hassan Azhar of Sindh High Court Larkana Bench approved Rs. 5 lakh each for protective bail of the factory owners Abdul Aziz, Shahid Bhaila and Arshad Bhaila.[19] All the bank accounts of the owners and the company are frozen and the owners are not allowed to leave the country as they are on exit control list. Owners are facing the charges of pre meditated murder.[20][21] The Deputy General Secretary of the Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions (PNFTU) Nasir Manoor said that the owner of the factory, Abdul Aziz, must have fled from the country so far despite having his name on the Exit Control List (ECL) and he would return only after the issue was off the media radar.[14] The Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) has rejected allegations that it was involved in the approval of building plan for the Baldia Town garment factory.[14] The C.E.O. of Ali Enterprises, Shahid Bhalia, who is a son of the factory's owner, said that he was innocent, was ready to appear before any court and that he was ready to provide compensation to the victims and their families.[22] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Pakistan_garment_factory_fires Connecticut Power Explosion

The 2010 Connecticut power plant explosion occurred at the Kleen Energy Systemspower station in Middletown, Connecticut, United States at 11:17 am EST on February 7, 2010. The plant had been under construction from February 2008,[2] and was scheduled to start supplying energy in June 2010.[3] The initial blast killed five and injured at least fifty; one of the injured later died in hospital, bringing the total death toll to six.[1][4] The investigation into the incident started the day after the explosion, and was conducted by agencies at the local, state and federal levels. It was expected to focus on whether human error or insufficient safety protocols were at fault. In particular, according to the local fire marshal, the investigation was to look at whether electricity was cut off from the area, whether workers had been evacuated before the purging of the gas line, and whether ignition sources were present.[23] Several days before the explosion, the Chemical Safety Boardhad approved new recommendations on gas line purging in the United States following an explosion at a food manufacturing plant inNorth Carolina in 2009 that killed four people.[24][25] Despite the Board's interest in the case, a spokesman said on February 9 that their team of investigators was being denied entrance to the site of the explosion, on the grounds that the area was a crime scene.[13] (The Chemical Safety Board did eventually deploy a team of ten investigators to the site.[26])
On 5 August 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it planned to fine seventeen companies involved in the construction of the plant a total of $16.6 million. OSHA said that it had found a total of 371 safety violations in the construction of the plant, 225 of which it considered deliberate.[27] The Chemical Safety Board released its final report on 28 June 2010.[28]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Connecticut_power_plant_explosion