Death toll from Philippine ferry fire increases to 35... Search operations continue

The number of deaths from a passenger ship fire near Palawan Island in the Philippines increased to 35.

According to Reuters on the 11th (local time), the Philippine Coast Guard announced that a total of 35 people were killed in a passenger ship fire that occurred near Coron, northern Palawan Island, on the night of the 9th.

The initial death toll of the accident was 5, but the Philippine Coast Guard recently recovered 30 additional charred bodies from inside the ferry.

The fire was completely extinguished the day before, but it took a long time to search the inside of the ferry due to thick smoke.

Philippine Coast Guard spokeswoman Noemi Kayabeng said, "We are working to properly recover the body and identify it according to established procedures."

The passenger list on this passenger ship recorded that there were 117 passengers and 17 crew members on board.

However, if you exclude the two people whose names are written on this list but who did not actually board, it is highly likely that 132 people are the actual number of people on board.

Since the Philippine Coast Guard previously rescued 43 people, the number of missing people, excluding the 35 dead, is currently estimated at 54.

At the time of the accident, the ferry departed from Baseco in the Manila port area and was heading to Coron.

One survivor remembered, "(At the time of the accident) the fire spread quickly, and I fell to the floor and suffered burns on my back," and "jumped out the window."

“It breaks my heart to think of my daughter calling for help while she was burning alive,” Lyra Darko, who is looking for her 20-year-old daughter, told the Associated Press.

In the Philippines, which is made up of about 7,000 islands, maritime accidents frequently occur because many ships do not follow boarding restrictions or are old.

In 1987, the passenger ship Donna Paz collided with an oil tanker and sank, killing more than 4,300 people, making it the worst maritime accident in history.