PALAWAN, the Philippines: The Philippine Coast Guard has discovered bodies aboard a ferry consumed in a blaze that swept through it "in seconds", it said on Friday (Sep 11), with dozens of people still missing.The bodies were found in the economy accommodation area of the M/V June Aster, which ran aground near the tourist hotspot Coron, Palawan, after a fire erupted on Wednesday.Five people have been confirmed dead, but the figure is now sure to grow."We can't provide exact numbers yet on what we saw today," coast guard spokeswoman Commodore Noemie Cayabyab told AFP in a phone call.
"We will be providing it once we conduct retrieval and recovery," she said, saying a meeting was underway to determine the proper protocols for that process.Cayabyab added that the entire ship had now been searched.Earlier in the day, she had told a radio station that the fire, which began in the cargo hold, had gone through the ship within seconds."From the time that they heard the loud explosion, the appearance of smoke, and then fire. It spread very quickly," she said of survivors' accounts, adding that those who made it off the ship had not even had time to put on life jackets."Everything happened in seconds," she said, adding that those who made it off the ship had not even had time to put on life jackets.
