Death toll in Philippine ferry fire rises to 76 as rescuers recover more remains

Philippine rescuers recovered 41 more charred remains from a ferry fire, authorities said on Saturday, raising the death toll to 76 and leaving 13 people unaccounted for, as forensic teams faced the daunting task of identifying the victims.

That painstaking process had already begun after 30 bodies recovered on Friday were brought to a port in Coron town, where temporary tents were set up for forensic teams to process and identify the dead.

Responders in protective suits were seen carrying black body bags from a Coast Guard vessel into the tents as anxious family members waited nearby for news of their loved ones.

One of them was Anelyn Magbanua, 37, whose husband was returning to Coron after visiting their children in Manila when the ferry, which was carrying more than 130 people, caught fire near the end of its more than 20-hour journey.

“I hope he is not among the dead being brought off the ship. I hope he is alive and has only drifted to another island,” she said.

“It will be very difficult to accept if he’s really gone,” she said. “He loved his children very much.”

Firefighters entered the ferry for the first time on Friday after extinguishing the blaze more than a day after it broke out, giving authorities access to areas that had been hard to reach because of thick smoke and extreme heat. The Coast Guard said burnt remains were discovered in the ferry’s economy accommodation section.

Images released by the Coast Guard showed the scale of the destruction inside the vessel, with rows of steel bed frames twisted by intense heat and blanketed in ash. Some photographs appeared to show skeletal remains among the debris.

Philippine Coast Guard via AP

Philippine Coast Guard official Geronimo Tuvilla said at a press conference on Saturday that the immediate priority was to identify the victims and determine the cause of the fire.

A statement from the Maritime Industry Authority, citing survivor accounts, said two explosions were heard inside the vessel shortly before the fire broke out.

One survivor interviewed by GMA News recalled seeing a small amount of smoke that turned into a fire and quickly spread through the ferry within seconds.

Questions also remained over the fate of the vessel’s captain. Coast Guard spokesperson Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said at the same press conference that she had received information that he was alive, but added that the captain’s name was not on the list of 43 confirmed survivors.

The fire is the latest in a string of deadly maritime accidents in the Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands where millions rely on ferries and small boats to travel between provinces and islands.

菲律宾当局周六表示，救援人员从渡轮火灾中又找到了 41 具烧焦的遗骸，死亡人数上升至 76 人，另有 13 人下落不明，法医团队面临着辨认遇难者身份的艰巨任务。

周五，30具尸体被运到科隆镇的一个港口，在那里搭建了临时帐篷，供法医团队处理和辨认死者，之后，这项艰辛的工作就已经开始了。

可以看到身穿防护服的救援人员从海岸警卫队的船上抬着黑色尸袋进入帐篷，焦急的家属在附近等待着亲人的消息。

其中一人是 37 岁的阿内琳·马格巴努阿 (Anelyn Magbanua)，她的丈夫在马尼拉探望完孩子后返回科隆岛，当时这艘载有 130 多人的渡轮在 20 多个小时的航程即将结束时起火。

“我希望他不在那批被从船上抬下来的遇难者之列。我希望他还活着，只是漂到了另一个岛上，”她说。

“如果他真的走了，我将很难接受，”她说。“他非常爱他的孩子们。”

周五，消防员在扑灭大火一天多后首次进入渡轮，使得当局能够进入此前因浓烟和高温而难以到达的区域。海岸警卫队称，在渡轮的经济舱区域发现了烧焦的残骸。

海岸警卫队公布的图片显示了船舱内部损毁的严重程度，一排排钢制床架被高温扭曲，并被灰烬覆盖。一些照片似乎显示，残骸中还有骸骨。

菲律宾海岸警卫队（美联社）

菲律宾海岸警卫队官员杰罗尼莫·图维拉周六在新闻发布会上表示，当务之急是确认遇难者身份并确定火灾原因。

海事工业管理局发表声明，援引幸存者的说法称，在火灾发生前不久，船内曾听到两次爆炸声。

一位接受 GMA 新闻采访的幸存者回忆说，他看到少量烟雾迅速变成大火，并在几秒钟内迅速蔓延到整个渡轮上。

关于船长的命运也仍然是个谜。海岸警卫队发言人诺埃米·卡亚比亚布准将在同一新闻发布会上表示，她已收到船长还活着的消息，但她补充说，船长的名字不在43名已确认幸存者的名单上。

这场火灾是菲律宾近期发生的一系列致命海事事故中的最新一起。菲律宾是一个拥有 7600 多个岛屿的群岛国家，数百万人依靠渡轮和小船在各省和岛屿之间出行。