3 Pinoys hurt in Kuwait fire

MANILA, Philippines —Three Filipinos were injured in a fire that hit a six-storey building in south of Kuwait City, which houses nearly 200 foreign workers, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said Thursday.

In an interview with GMA's "Unang Balita," DMW Secretary Hans Cacdac said that 11 Overseas Filipino Workers were affected by the blaze.

"Meron tayong 11 OFWs na apektado dun sa building na yun... Fire broke out nung madaling araw, so tulog ang karamihan dun sa building na yun," Cacdac said.

(We have 11 OFWs who are affected in that building... Fire broke out early in the morning, so most of them were asleep when the fire broke out.)

"We are coordinaing with the company involved and they've been very cooperative. The Kuwaiti government is also cooperative and coordinating with us," he added. 

According to the DMW chief, three of the OFWs were hospitalized, with two of them in critical condition.

"'Yung isa is in a less serious situation, pero pagdasal pa din natin ang kanilang kaligtasan," he said.

(The other one is in a less serious situation, but let's still pray for their safety.)

In a report of Agence France-Presse, the health ministry of Kuwait said the blaze, which broke out at around dawn, also left dozens injured.

Flames engulfed the lower floors as black smoke poured out of the upper-storey windows, unverified images posted on social media showed.

The interior ministry of Kuwait revised the death toll up to 49, from 35 issued earlier, after forensic teams scoured the charred building.

"The number of deaths as a result of the fire in the workers' building... has risen to 49," the ministry said.

The official Kuwait News Agency quoted Health Minister Ahmed al-Awadhi as saying hospitals had received 56 people injured in the fire in the Mangaf area, which is heavily populated with migrant labourers.

The building, whose exterior was blackened with soot, housed 196 workers, according to information given to the interior minister by their employer.

Oil-rich Kuwait has large numbers of foreign workers, many of them from South and Southeast Asia, and mostly working in construction or service industries.

A source in the fire department said the victims