Officials said the death toll in a rubber slipper factory fire in a suburb of the Philippines’ capital had climbed to at least 72...as police continued to retrieve charred bodies from the gutted building. Dozens more remained missing and feared dead. A fierce blaze quickly took hold of the Kentex Manufacturing...factory in Valenzuela city north of Manila...Eduardo Nazar, village council chief of Ugong where the factory is located, said: “The [police forensic officers] will do all they can to identify the victims because they are totally burned.”...[T]he fire was apparently ignited by sparks from welding work being done at the factory’s main entrance door, triggering an explosion of the chemicals used to make the slippers. Workers fled to the second floor where they were trapped, he said. He was unsure if there were any fire escapes there.Tiu, the fire marshal, said the building had other exits but apparently the workers were overwhelmed by the thick black smoke from the burning rubber and chemicals, which are highly flammable and caused the blaze to spread quickly.