DHAKA: A huge night fire sent slum dwellers running for their lives and destroyed more than a thousand homes in the Philippines` largest southern city.

Philippine officials said on Saturday, reports The Straits Times.

Davao city’s skyline lit up as firefighters battled for more than five hours against flames that leapt swiftly from one shanty to another in the depressed coastal neighbourhood of Isla Verde on Friday night, witnesses said.

‘I’m back to zero. I don’t know how I can recover,’ said grocer Norayna Serad, who lost her store and merchandise worth 100,000 pesos that she had paid for with three years worth of savings from working abroad.

‘Maybe I will need to go back to Kuwait and work as a maid again,’ the 28-year-old told media as she clutched a half-burnt Koran beside the ruins of her shop.

BDST: 1900 HRS, APR 05, 2014