Five dead and 86 missing after fire on the Manila-Coron ferry June Aster

A fire on the passenger ferry MV June Aster has killed at least five people and left 86 unaccounted for, the Philippine Coast Guard said on Thursday. The vessel was carrying 117 passengers and 17 crew from Baseco in Manila to Coron, a tourist town in Palawan known for wreck dives and limestone islands, when flames took hold on Wednesday evening.

Commodore Noemie Cayabyab, the Coast Guard spokeswoman, told local radio and television that the ship's manifest listed 134 people. Rescuers have brought 43 survivors ashore, 38 of them passengers and four of them crew. Two of those pulled from the water are Chilean nationals. Five bodies have been landed. The arithmetic of those figures, she said, leaves 86 people still missing. She stressed that the count is live and will change as boats keep searching.

Where and when it burned

The fire started around 18:00 to 18:45 local time, about 2.2 kilometres off Coron. Coast Guard video released overnight shows the superstructure fully involved, with orange flame along the hull and smoke drifting over dark water. By 11:00 on Thursday the wreck was still burning. Current had pushed it farther from the original position, which slowed boarding teams.

After speaking with one survivor, Cayabyab said the fire began in the cargo hold. Investigators have not named a cause. Officers have not yet taken full statements from the rescued, she said, because many were still being treated or were too exhausted to talk.

The June Aster had almost finished the Manila-Coron run, a route that packs commuters, workers and holiday traffic onto ageing ferries. Maritime accidents are common in the archipelago. Officials already fear this one will rank among the worst in recent years if the missing are not found alive.

Families and the search

Relatives gathered in Manila and in Coron overnight. Rai Garcia told the BBC that three family friends are among the missing: Mae Lorraine Galera-Navoa, who had travelled to Luzon for her father's funeral, her husband Elyzer Navoa, and their three-year-old daughter Hiraya Joy. A woman whose husband is unaccounted for said she had been crying and praying since Wednesday night.

Search boats faced two problems at once. The hull was too hot and unstable for a long stay on deck, and the drift took the search box farther offshore. Coast Guard teams, local fishermen and municipal vessels worked the water through the night. Cayabyab appealed for families with relatives on the manifest to come forward so names can be matched against the rescued and the dead.

Philippine ferries on this corridor often carry mixed cargo under passenger decks: boxed goods, fuel in containers, motorcycles. A hold fire on a packed night sailing leaves little time to launch boats. The Coast Guard has not said whether the June Aster's firefighting system worked or whether the alarm reached every cabin.

What is known, and what is not

Confirmed: the ship, the route, the passenger and crew totals on the manifest, the approximate start time, the hold as the reported origin, 43 rescued, five dead, and a large unaccounted group. Not confirmed: the ignition source, whether any passenger list errors will change the missing number, and how many of the missing are still in the water rather than unrecorded ashore.

Coron is a small town whose clinics and port can handle routine medevac, not a mass-casualty landing. Survivors were being moved as capacity allowed. The Coast Guard said attempts to put the fire out were still running on Thursday morning.

The next useful facts will come from a stable passenger-by-passenger reconciliation and from whatever the first detailed survivor accounts say about the minutes after the hold filled with smoke. Until that list is closed, the story is a search, not a finished accident report.