Nearly 3,000 impoverished families faced a bleak new year after losing their homes in a fire that gutted a Manila shantytown, officials and residents said yesterday.
One man suffered first-degree burns but there were no reports of deaths in the blaze that broke out late Thursday in Manila's Tondo district, fire officer Guillermo Fermalino said.
The fire raged for three hours and was put out early yesterday, leaving mostly only the galvanized iron roofs and charred posts of shanties built on stilts close to Manila Bay.
Fermalino said the cause of the fire was still under investigation.
"We lost our homes to the fire so our new year will be sad," a woman resident told ABS-CBN television.
"We hope people can help us," cried Aileen Penaflor, another resident.
They said they failed to save their families' belongings.
Meanwhile, firefighters battled to contain scores of wild fires in scorching, tinder-dry conditions across southeast Australia yesterday and were bracing for more devastating blazes in the days ahead, officials said.
Authorities declared total fire bans across New South Wales state, Australian Capital Territory, and in most of Victoria state from midnight yesterday until tomorrow. A total ban bars all controlled fires including barbecues, camp fires and the burning of domestic or garden waste.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Phil Koperberg appealed to the public to strictly observe the fire ban.
"It is critical that new fires do not start over the next 48 hours in anticipation of severe fire weather conditions expected for Sunday," Koperberg said in a statement.
Fire officials also warned that no New Year's Day fireworks displays would be held without special permits.
"It's going to be too hot, too windy and dry, and at the moment our firefighters are still out there working on fires across the state, and they don't need to be looking after any new fires that are started by fireworks," New South Wales Rural Fire Service spokeswoman Rebel Talbert told Sky News television.
A permit has already been issued for the traditional New Year's fireworks at Sydney Harbor, she said.
Firefighters contained 20 fires in New South Wales on yesterday, including a major blaze in Muswellbrook, just north of Sydney, which burned out 5,000 hectares of farm and grass land overnight, Talbert said.
One fire destroyed two farm sheds near Muswellbrook and strayed close to several rural homes and industrial conveyor belts used to shift coal from mines to the local power station.
Victoria's fire authorities declared a fire ban in the state capital of Melbourne and in the northwest of the state.
Authority spokesman Trevor White said the ban in Victoria would continue until 4am tomorrow. The New South Wales ban will stay in place until midnight tomorrow, Talbert said.
The fire danger across Victoria was rated as very high or extreme yesterday after more than 100 fires broke out across the state a day earlier.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese