Sixteen people, including women and children, were killed in a fire that swept through a residential building as people slept in a slum community in the central Philippines, an official said.

Fire marshal Pamela Candido said the fire started after midnight local time Monday. The blaze rapidly spread because of strong winds, gutting the wooden two-story apartment building and more than 60 nearby shanties in Bacolod city.

Several people leapt from windows at the height of the fire but others failed to wake up in time to save themselves, Candido said.

"Some mothers perished with their children," Candido told The Associated Press. "It was really tragic."

The building housed impoverished families, which included men and women who worked as vendors in a nearby public market, officials said.

Relatives have identified all the dead, who were placed in black bags and lined up side by side in a clearing near the still-smouldering slum community.

An investigation is under way to determine the cause of the fire, Candido said.

All the dead have been identified, she said.