Fifteen families were left homeless following a fire caused by a mobile phone left charging overnight.

Residents in the Santa Cruz district of Manila, the Philippines had just finished dinner when they smelled something burning on September 23.

Cita Pichay, one of the fire victims, said the fire immediately caught their house only minutes after the smell of smoke.

She said: "We went down to check where the smoke was coming from and saw our neighbour's house burning.

"We hurried upstairs to take our belongings but our house was burning was burning too on the second floor so we left."

The fire started from a three-storey old model house made of wood and other light materials. Neighbouring houses were also made of wood so the fire spread quickly.

Firefighters rushed to the scene but had difficulty reaching the burning houses because the road was narrow. The fire was declared out almost after two hours before midnight.

Manila Fire District chief Senior Inspector Guillermo Firmalino Jr said their initial investigations suggested that the fire started from a cellphone charging short-circuited.

He said: "There was a thunderstorm before the fire started, so it is possible that the electrical wirings were wet and short-circuited."
No one was hurt from the fire, but the properties inside the affected houses were all destroyed.

The affected families were taken to a nearby school building to stay in temporary shelters.

Santa Cruz and much of the northern portions of Manila were spared from the artillery bombardment during the World War II and to date, a number of pre-war buildings and houses still stand in the area.