- Title: PHILIPPINES: AT LEAST 149 DIE IN MANILA DISCO FIRE
- Date: 19th March 1996
- Summary: MANILA, PHILIPPINES (MARCH 19, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: BODY BEING CARRIED INTO AMBULANCE 0.06 2. GV: SURVIVOR ON STRETCHER 0.21 3. GV: WRAPPED BODY ON STRETCHER 0.29 4. GV: SURVIVORS IN EMERGENCY ROOM (3 SHOTS) 0.39 5. MV: RELATIVES WAITING FOR NEWS 0.44 6. SV: AARON CAMBRONERO, SURVIVOR, IN EMERGENCY ROOM 0.49 7. CU: BURN ON CAMBRONERO'S FEET 0.52 8. MCU: CAMBRONERO SAYING "WHEN PEOPLE SAW THE FLAME THEY PANICKED AND RUSHED OUT TO THE DOOR. I TRIED TO RUSH OUT. I FELL ON THE FLOOR AND PEOPLE WERE STEPPING ON ME. WHEN SOMETHING EXPLODED, I WAS LYING FLAT ON THE FLOOR" (TAGALOG) 1.06 9. LV: DAY TIME VIEW OF CROWD OUTSIDE DISCO 1.10 10. GV: PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING SHOT OF "OZONE" SIGN 1.13 11. GV/PAN/CU: RESCUE WORKERS INSIDE/ WRECKAGE/ PILES OF SHOES/ SIGN OUTSIDE 'STOP THE BURNING' (9 SHOTS) 1.54 12. GV: FIRE DAMAGED INTERIOR WITH BURNED RECORD DECKS AND DISCO LIGHTS (7 SHOTS) 2.27 13. GV: GIRL CRYING OUT TO HER FATHER SAYING HER BROTHER "OSEPH" IS IN ARLINGTON (NAME OF FUNERAL PARLOUR) 2.40 14. MV: MAN KEEPING TALLY OF VICTIMS ON CLIPBOARD 2.43 15. MV: ERLINA MANDAP, SEARCHING FOR HER DAUGHTER MELISSA, SAYING HAS NOT HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT HER YET. EARLIER SHE FOUND JUST A SHOE BELONGING TO HER DAUGHTER (TAGALOG) 2.58 16. GV: MOTHER CRYING/ BODY BEING CARRIED TO AMBULANCE (2 SHOTS) 3.07 17. SV: WOMAN CRYING 3.16 18. GV: EXTERIOR OF 'OZONE' DISCO 3.21 19. GV: PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT FIDEL RAMOS WALKING OUT OF THE BUILDING 3.32 20. GV: CROWD OUTSIDE 3.38 21. SCU: RAMOS TALKING TO POLICE (ENGLISH) 4.01 22. GV: SECURITY AND REPORTERS OUTSIDE CLUB 4.07 TRANSCRIPT SEQUENCE 21: RAMOS: "YOU BETTER GET THE OWNERS HERE FOR INVESTIGATION. TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING INVITED FOR QUESTIONING BY THE PNP (PHILIPPINES NATIONAL POLICE) AND IF ANY OF THE REFUSE, I ORDER THEIR ARREST. BUT GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO RESPOND VOLUNTARILY." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 3rd April 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
- City:
- Country: Phillippines
- Reuters ID: LVAA38CAZJSPXKQJCHGVPBTUFO4U
- Story Text: INTRO: At least 149 people died in the Philippines when fire broke out in a Manila disco packed with teenagers. President Fidel Ramos toured the burnt out shell and called for the owners to come forward to be investigated.
------------------------------------------------------------------- More than 300 people, mostly high school and college students, were packed into Manila's Ozone disco on Tuesday (March 19) when the fire broke out just after midnight killing at least 149.
Firefighters said many of those who perished were trampled to death in a chaotic stampede for the single, narrow exit. There were no emergency or fire exits in the fashionable Philippine nightspot.
Rescuers found bodies piled up under twisted metal and other smoke-blackened debris. It took several hours to extricate the bodies but by 8 a.m. (0000 GMT) firemen said they believed they had recovered them all.
The inferno, which came as the Philippines marked March as fire safety month, was the worst in the southeast Asian nation's history.
Investigators were trying to establish the cause of the blaze 88ich broke out as the young revellers were packed almost elbow to elbow on the dance floor.
The fire spread with great speed, plunging the club into darkness, filling it with suffocating smoke, and shattering disco mirrors.
Witnesses said they heard people screaming to be let out.
One survivor, Aaron Cambronero described the scene inside the club after the fire broke out. "When people saw the flames, they panicked and rushed out to the door. I tried to rush out. I fell on the floor and people were stepping on me." At first light grief stricken relatives gathered outside the disco searching for family members. As more bodies were recovered from the twisted wreckage, one woman, Erlina Mandap wept as she waited for news of her daughter Melissa. "I've had no news of her, I just find a shoe belonging to her." A grim-faced President Fidel Ramos, visiting the site,ordered an immediate investigation into the blaze at the disco, which fire officers say had no emergency exits, a glaring violation of the law.
"You better get the owners here for investigation," Ramos told senior police officers.
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