Palawan (Philippines) (AFP) - A deadly blaze that swept through a Philippine ferry happened “in seconds”, the coast guard said Friday, as rescuers battled heavy smoke in the search for dozens of missing people.

The fire that tore through the M/V June Aster on Wednesday evening near the tourist hotspot of Coron, Palawan has killed at least five people, while another 84, including the ship’s captain and chief engineer, remain unaccounted for.

“Everything happened in seconds,” coast guard spokeswoman Commodore Noemie Cayabyab said in a radio interview Friday.

“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.

The fire, which began in the cargo hold, may have moved even more rapidly due to strong headwinds reported by passengers, Cayabyab added later.

Police investigators, explosive ordnance disposal experts and army personnel boarded on Friday afternoon a pair of small rubber boats to head to the ship, grounded on a small island off Coron.

Nearby, a covered basketball court served as a staging area for social workers and security personnel, while police tape cordoned the area off from members of the public.

A member of the police investigative unit could be heard asking a colleague if “the body bags are there”.

Near the wharf, a family member of one of the missing wept as she stared out to sea.

- ‘He was so happy’ -

Myra Cabilan told AFP she had flown to Coron on Friday to find her missing brother, 40-year-old Rammel Gonzaga, who had taken the ferry from Manila on a business trip with his brother-in-law.

“I didn’t know he had made the trip,” Cabilan said, explaining she only found out later from his wife.

“His wife had just given birth a month ago. He was so happy he was given a daughter,” she said, fighting back tears.

“At dawn, I still believed he survived. But he’s still missing. I have lost hope.”

Updates about the search for survivors have trickled out slowly, while the death toll has remained unchanged since late Wednesday.

Hundreds of people desperate for news about the incident have taken to leaving comments on the Facebook page of a local mayor, searching for relatives, friends and even a dog.

The ferry’s manifest listed 134 passengers and crew. It was also carrying goods, an electric vehicle, a pickup truck and motorcycles.

Of the 43 rescued, 30 were passengers and 13 were crew, the coast guard said. The identity of another survivor was not immediately clear.

- A history of disasters -

The archipelago nation of 116 million has a long history of disasters involving the inter-island ferries that ply its seas.

Many rely on cheap and poorly regulated boats and ships for transport between the country’s more than 7,000 islands, despite regular accidents.

In January, a triple-decker ferry carrying more than 340 people sank off the southern Philippines, killing at least 52 people.

The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 sank along nearly the same route where 31 people died in 2023 after a fire broke out aboard the Lady Mary Joy 3 ferry.

On Thursday, the company that owns the M/V June Aster, Atienza Interisland Ferries Inc, said it was fully cooperating with the investigation.