Fifteen died while three survived when a fire razed a residential area in Quezon City on Thursday morning.

The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said the fire began at 5:30 am in Pleasant View Subdivision, Barangay Tandang Sora, Quezon City.

According to BFP National Capital Region Chief Superintendent Nahum Tarroza, among the fatalities were a family who owned the house, including a couple and their three-year-old child

“This is a residential house that was made into an area for a T-shirt printing business and they have stay-in workers who stay at the back of the house. They have a room with bunk beds. They are staying there while the others were staying on the second floor,” Tarroza told dwPM.

Tarroza said the owners of the t-shirt printing firm had a business permit that expired in November. They had not renewed this.

They were able to get a barangay clearance this month but were not able to get a mayor’s permit from the city hall before the fire struck.

Tarroza also said the firefighters arrived 14 minutes late.

“The fire department arrived 14 minutes late that’s why I am investigating this. What happened was they were given the wrong address, and to make things worse, there were heavy rains and it was flooding. The traffic was also heavy in the Tandang Sora area at 5 am,” he said.

The fire was declared under control by 6:28 am and finally put out by 8:04 am.

Jaspearl Tan/DMS