To ensure that there is enough water in instances of fire, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said the city would be rehabilitating water tanks in at least six barangays in the city.
Osmeña said the water tanks were built during the term of his father, Don Sergio Osmeña Jr., but were eventually left idle. Each tank is said to be capable of holding 20,000 gallons of water that can fill up to four or five supertankers.
Osmeña said he already made instructions to have the tanks inspected. The idle tanks are in barangays San Nicolas, Ramos, Abellana, Parian, Labangon and Guadalupe, although the one in Guadalupe might already have been destroyed.
The mayor said majority of the tanks have not been put to use because most of their valves have been destroyed. However, the city is reportedly willing to allocate a certain amount to rehabilitate them once they have been checked.
He said the presence of the tanks would “improve” the fire fighting capability of the city’s fire department because firemen would have certain assurance that they would have enough backup supply in case their own tanks would run out of water.
Osmeña explained a backup supply of water is important because fire fighters cannot completely rely on refilling their fire trucks especially in a big fire.
The city will be conducting an inventory of all tanks that may still be rehabilitated to determine the budget for the rehabilitation.
Osmeña announced his decision in the wake of a massive fire in Oslob town that razed an almost two centuries-old church.
Despite the fact that the fire station is but 30 meters away from the church, the town’s firemen failed to respond promptly to the blaze because they had to push their two fire trucks to the fire scene because both had defective master clutch assemblies.
The fire started early dawn Wednesday last week but was put out only three hours later. The firemen there also had to wait for reinforcements from neighboring towns.
The other day, in a move to taunt the provincial government, Osmeña said he would be donating a fire extinguisher to Oslob if only to compel the provincial government to donate a fire truck to the town.
Garcia had demanded a public apology from Osmeña, saying the province has actually donated a fire truck but the mayor simply shrugged off the demand. — Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM