At Least 60 Filipinos Killed as Garbage Dump Caves In

MANILA — A mountain of garbage loosened by rain collapsed and burst into flames Monday at Manila’s biggest dump, flattening squatters’ shanties and killing at least 60 people, officials said.

About 30 other people were injured and at least 68 remained missing late Monday, Red Cross spokeswoman Tess Usapdin said.

About 300 soldiers and volunteers, hampered by a lack of equipment, poor lighting and bursts of rain, toiled through the night to try to reach victims.

Some of the rescue workers clawed with bare hands through the rubbish mountain, which has stood for years as a symbol of massive poverty in the Philippines.

About 100 houses were covered, Quezon City Mayor Ismael Mathay said.

Officials said the collapse was caused by heavy rain from Typhoon Kai-tak, which had battered the country for five days before it swept toward Taiwan on Sunday.

Survivors said they heard a rumbling followed by an avalanche of mud and garbage that swamped their wooden houses as one side of the 50-foot-high dump site gave way.

After collapsing onto the shanties, the wall of garbage burst into flames, engulfing the area. Residents said the debris might have been ignited by fallen power cables or stoves being used in huts covered by the garbage.

Many of the dead were children.

“I was sleeping when I thought I heard an airplane coming. Then there was an explosion,” 9-year-old Nelda Tagalo said. “My papa saved me.”

Two boys, ages 8 and 3, appeared in shock when they were rescued. Asked about their mother, the elder one just said: “No more.”

The dump site is an underworld of 80,000 slum dwellers, most of whom trek up the small mountain every day to forage for used plastic containers, bottles and broken toys and appliances to sell to junk shops.

They also scrounge for food.

After the collapse, firetrucks could not reach the area because of limited space and parked on a main road several blocks away. Hoses were pulled through crowded alleys by firefighters, who extinguished most of the blaze after several hours.

The dump site was to be closed last December, but the plan was postponed after residents at a landfill in nearby Rizal province refused to allow waste from metropolitan Manila to be dumped there.