The blaze broke out around midnight Sunday in the impoverished Tondo district and raged for more than seven hours, spreading through 47 acres of the 121-acre compound of the former BASECO shipyard.
The fire was believed set off by a gas tank that exploded, officials said.
Firefighters struggled to gain access to the blaze in the overcrowded area where ramshackle homes line passageways that are too narrow for firetrucks to pass, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said.
Twenty-seven firetrucks and a navy fire boat on a nearby river assisted in the operation.
At least 23 people were brought to various hospitals for injuries, but no deaths have been reported so far, the Office of Civil Defense said.
At least 2,500 homes were burned down, leaving 5,006 families — or 25,030 people — homeless, it added."
A very tragic news that shaked the city of manila and because of this tragedy the hard life of the people of baseco even become harder.Though there were help from the local government and other government sectors it wont still be the same for the homeless people.Little by little they try to stand again from the pain they've experience and just thanked God that no one died.
With all heart and good intentions we journey BASECO. Contrary to what others say that this place is full of goons and bad people that no one will get out here alive,we were welcomed by the warm smiles of the cute children along our walking marathon.With all honesty we were a little frightened but when we see these little children we became to wonder: How can this place be a haven of warm and happy smiles if this place is a scary place? Well the liitle fear we felt in short was gone.Before the tragedy this place was composed of small houses made up from scrap cartons and sacks floating in the dirty water full of garbage supported by scrap woods to make it stable from storms,big waves and heavy downpour.Got the picture?I bet you will. You can imagine how hard life is for them.But thanks to the good people who have the heart to help these people they have a more stable place to live. A few houses were already made up of concrete although a little smaller for an average family but safer.
But there are some who wasnt so lucky or I may say not YET lucky.Because there were so many of them not all of them were lucky enough to have a concrete home. Beheind these houses,there are still families who live in a big scrap materials,patched to have a protection from rain and intense sunlight.They are still floating near the shores and they're old boats they use it in fishing for a small income. You can assume that they dont have enough food for they're everyday living or enough income to make their children go to school or educate them with all the big stuffs we know or teach them to write or read but how come they have this beautiful smiles that a rich little girl sometimes conceive?? the answer is simple..because their contented.Behind all the agonies of life and pain of living they manage to smile.
As we continue to witness the beauty of this place we were again shocked by this picture. This young child is woking so hard in a very very young age where they should be going to school or playing and enjoying their wonderful child years.But for them to get on with their life and have something to eat they should be going.
In our continuous journey in baseco we saw and mingled with little children who were very much excited to take their photos while they are playing.As we watch them we saw how happy and how they enjoyed their lives after the tragedy. But there is this one thing that crashed my heart,a child came to me and asked me: "kuya kelan po kami magkakabahay?" As I watch this child's face with full of different emotions,his eyes seemed to be crying help. I can tell how hard life is for him and how he is longing for a better life.I begin to ponder things like: When will it be? or Will there be? Questions that even I dont have the answers.I just smiled at the child and pat him in the head.I know it wont remove the pain he's feeling but I prayed that someday,someone will help them not for political reasons or show-off but because it came from their hearts.
