Eight persons died while three were injured in a fire that hit a two-story residence of informal settler families in an employees village in UP campus in Diliman, Quezon City on Monday.

An initial report by the Quezon City Fire Department said the fire began at the second floor portion inside a bedroom at 5:20 am. It was declared fire out at 7 am.

The Bureau of Fire Protection said four fatalities are female, aged three, eight and 32. Four others were male, one 10 years old. Ages of other victims are still undetermined.

“We could not recognize them because they are charred beyond recognition,” Senior Inspector Jose Felipe Arreza, commander of the Quezon City Fire Bureau Station 4, said in an interview at GMA News.

Arreza said six fatalities were found inside the passageway of house where they were trapped. Two were near a window where they planned to escape but they were suffocated, added Arreza.

Damage was estimated at P150,000. Eighty houses and establishments were burnt and around 250 families were affected by the fire.

Fire investigators said they were looking into the cause of the blaze. Robina Asido/DMS