MANILA – Philippine rescuers searched the smouldering ruins of a burnt-out ferry on Thursday for any survivors or more victims of a fire that swept though the inter-island vessel killing 29 people, including a six-month old baby, the authorities said. 

The authorities have yet to identify the cause of the fire that started at around 11pm on Wednesday off the island of Basilan, when many of the passengers were asleep in air-conditioned cabins on the ferry’s lower deck.

“I thought I was dreaming but when I opened my eyes, it was dark and we were surrounded by smoke,” Ms Mina Nani, 46, told radio station DZRH. She said she survived by jumping off the vessel, and shared a float with another passenger before being rescued. 

There were conflicting figures on the number of passengers on the ferry, which officials said was not overloaded. The coast guard said 225 people, including 36 crew members, were rescued. 

Eleven people, including three children, drowned after jumping off the burning ship, while 18 died in the blaze on board, Basilan Governor Hadjiman Hataman Salliman told DZRH. 

“We have yet to explore the entire ship because it’s still hot,” he said of the beached vessel. 

Commodore Rejard Marfe, coast guard chief in the southern Mindanao region, told Reuters there was “chaos” after the spreading fire roused people from their sleep and the 18 victims found onboard were “totally burnt”. 

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor record for maritime safety, with vessels often overcrowded and many ageing ships still in use.

In May, at least seven people died after a high-speed Philippine ferry carrying 134 people caught fire.

In 1987, around 5,000 people died in the world’s worst peacetime shipping disaster, when overloaded ferry Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker off Mindoro island, south of Manila. REUTERS