Philippines hotel fire kills six, including four foreigners

Seven people including four foreigners, died on Friday morning when a two-star mini hotel was razed by fire near a former naval base of the US that has been converted by the Philippine government into commercial use in central Luzon since 1991, officials said.

Three American men, a South Korean man, and two Filipinas were killed when fire began at the first floor, the office area of Dryden Hotel in Barreto Village, the red light district of Olongapo City, at 1am on Friday, Alex Testado, Fire Marshall of Olongapo’s Bureau of Fire Protection told Gulf News in a phone interview.

One American was trapped on the wooden staircase that served as the hotel’s escape route on the second floor, the hotel’s room area. The rest were trapped in five rooms. One of them was an octogenarian. Their identities came from Dryden Hotel’s guest list, Testado said, adding their bodies were retrieved after the fire was placed under control at six in the morning.

Fire officials have started investigating the cause of the fire, said Olongapo City’s fire investigator Jose Borlagdatan.

The fire almost affected two other adjacent buildings, all located near the national highway of Olongapo City. Its red light district used to cater to foreigners when the former US Subic Naval Base was still operating, said civil defence chief Angelito Layug.

Retired American servicemen and old Australian nationals who have married local residents have been residing in Olongapo City despite the absence of the US naval forces there, said Layug.

In 1991, the US Naval forces left Subic after the Philippine Senate rejected the US-proposed extension of the now defunct US-Philippines Military Bases Agreement (MBA), the basis of US presence in the country since 1898.

Friday 11 January 2013

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