Typhoon Haiyan: Survivor Mother and Five Children Die In Tent Fire

A mother and five of her children who survived the devastating Typhoon Haiyan have been killed in a fire that razed their temporary shelter in the Philippines.

The family was living in a tent city set up in Tacloban for survivors who had their house destroyed by the super storm, which killed thousands in November last year.

The fire was caused by a kerosene lamp and quickly consumed the canvass tent as the family was sleeping.

The five children who died in the blaze were aged between 4 months and 12 years old. A 7-year-old boy survived the blaze and was fighting for his life in a government hospital.

"It happened around 00:20 ... but it was so fast that by 00:30 it was over," Tacloban city disaster management officer Derrick Anido said. "Unfortunately, after surviving (the typhoon), they were killed in a fire."

Their tent was one of the 40 set up in Tacloban's San Jose district, one of the worst affected by Typhoon Haiyan.

"The problem is that so many people are still living in tents and we have been saying all along that these tents are fire hazards," Anido said. "And we have been requesting [the national government] to relocate them to safer shelters."

Haiyan, one of the world's strongest typhoons on record, killed 6,293 people and injured more than 28,000. Four million people were displaced and 1,061 are missing.

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