Manila  - A 50-year-old man was killed and more than 1,000 were left homeless when a fire gutted hundreds of houses in the Philippine capital on Monday, a police report said.

The report said fire investigators were still determining the cause of the blaze that razed 300 houses and left as many as 1,500 people homeless in Manila's suburban Quezon City.

Witnesses said the fire started at the house of the lone fatality, Manolo Esquivel, who died after he allegedly refused to leave his burning house.(dpa)