ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 19, 1996 TAG: 9603190090
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
SOURCE: Associated Press
Flames billowed through a discotheque packed with graduation revelers early today, sending them fleeing for a blocked exit and stampeding into narrow halls. Firefighters picked the bodies of 150 people from the smoking ruins.
Dozens more were severely injured, many with third-degree burns. It was the worst fire ever in the Philippines and the worst in a nightclub since 1977, when 164 people died at Beverly Hills Supper Club in Southgate, Ky.
Fire officials initially had feared that as many as 50 more bodies could be covered by the debris, but no more were found by midday.
When the fire broke out shortly after midnight, there were an estimated 350 people in the Ozone Disco Pub in suburban Quezon City, many of them taking part in high school and college graduation parties, survivors said. The Philippines school year begins in June.
``It was like hell,'' said disc jockey Marvin Reyes, who watched flames catch the hair and clothes of screaming victims.
Bodies of people who had tried unsuccessfully to escape were piled waist-deep in a narrow corridor leading from the dance floor. Others were crushed beneath a collapsed mezzanine ceiling.
Investigators said the fire exit had been blocked by a new building next door.
The wails of relatives searching for loved ones added to the chaos as firefighters put out the blaze. Rescuers soon accumulated the names of more than 100 people still missing from the disco.
``I tried to announce there was a fire, but the microphone stopped working,'' Reyes said.
``We saw smoke and tried to run outside, but were caught in a stampede,'' said one survivor, who gave only her first name, Rose. ``I was stepped on, but managed to force my way out.''
She said two of the three friends she was with were missing.
``I could not do anything,'' said Reny Megis, a door guard at the disco. ``There was just a rush of people.''
His own son was among those killed inside.
LENGTH: Short : 47 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB