Nighttime Blaze Traps Dozens Off Palawan

Rescue crews pulled more bodies from a burned-out Philippine ferry over the weekend, pushing the confirmed death toll to 76 people, with 13 still missing.

Story Snapshot

The Philippine Coast Guard says 76 people are now confirmed dead after fire tore through the ferry MV June Aster.
Thirteen people remain missing as search teams keep working through the wreckage.
The fire broke out the night of September 9 off Coron, in Palawan province.
Forty-three passengers were rescued, but the death toll has climbed steadily for days.
The disaster adds to a long history of deadly ferry accidents in Philippine waters.

Death Toll Climbs Day After Day

The Philippine Coast Guard first reported five deaths the morning after the fire. That number kept rising as crews searched the charred vessel. By Friday it hit 35, with dozens still unaccounted for. By Saturday, rescuers had recovered dozens more remains, pushing the confirmed toll to 76 people dead and 13 still missing, according to the Associated Press.

Officials have not said the search is finished. Coast Guard teams kept combing through the ferry’s burned decks and surrounding waters for a fifth straight day, looking for the remaining missing passengers and crew.

Fire Spread Fast During Overnight Trip

The blaze broke out aboard the passenger ferry as it traveled through waters near Coron, in the western Philippine province of Palawan. The fire spread so quickly that some passengers had little time to react before flames engulfed parts of the vessel, according to the Associated Press. Rescuers pulled 43 survivors from the water and nearby boats that night.

Two Chilean nationals were among those rescued, according to the BBC. The ship was carrying far more people than a typical passenger count, and officials have spent days trying to confirm exactly who was on board when the fire started.

A Familiar Problem in Philippine Waters

Confusion over passenger counts is not new for Philippine ferry disasters. During a 2023 ferry fire off Basilan, officials struggled with an inaccurate manifest that left rescue teams unsure how many people were actually on board, delaying search and recovery work. That same pattern of incomplete passenger records has slowed identification efforts after the June Aster fire.

Philippine Ferry Fire Death Toll Rises to 76..

The death toll from a ferry fire in the #Philippines has risen to 76, after the Philippine Coast Guard confirmed the recovery of 41 additional bodies from the burned-out vessel off Palawan. pic.twitter.com/5FL8OiG59G

— Ayman Mat News (@AymanMatNews) September 13, 2026

Researchers who study maritime accidents say the Philippines, along with Indonesia and Bangladesh, accounts for nearly half of all ferry accidents recorded worldwide over a recent 14-year span. Overcrowding, aging vessels, and human error show up again and again as the leading causes. The June Aster fire fits a pattern regulators have struggled to fix for decades.

The country’s deadliest ferry disaster remains the 2008 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars during a typhoon, which killed an estimated 814 people. That tragedy led to promises of tighter safety rules, yet fires and sinkings have continued to strike Philippine ferries in the years since, often in waters far from major cities where rescue resources are limited.

For now, families of the missing wait as Coast Guard teams continue searching the wreckage. Authorities have not announced a timeline for when the search will end or when all victims will be identified. The toll of 76 dead already ranks among the worst ferry disasters the country has seen in recent years, and it may still climb further.