P10.8 million for fire extinguishers approved for the barangays

CEBU, Philippines - The resolution passed by the Cebu City Council appropriating P10.8 million for the purchase of 3,000 fire extinguishers to be distributed to the different barangays of the city has already been approved by Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Guadalupe barangay captain Eugenio “Jingjing” Faelnar, who sits as an ex-officio member of the city council being the president of the Association of Barangay Councils, said the number of fire extinguishers that will be entrusted to the barangays will depend on the actual land area and population of the barangay.

The mayor also gave his nod to the city council’s request that the P10,800,000 budget for the purchase of the fire fighting equipment will be charged to the city’s calamity funds that is equivalent to five percent of the overall annual budget of Cebu City.

Faelnar was happy now that the mayor has already approved the city council resolution which he authored sometime last month.

According to Faelnar the firefighting equipment will be entrusted to the members of the Barangay Fire Brigades, particularly in the city’s urban barangays, who are tasked to respond to fire alarms in their respective territorial jurisdictions.

Faelnar said the fire extinguishers can be of great help to control the spread of fires, particularly in congested areas of the city where fire trucks can no longer penetrate because of the narrow roads.

For those barangays that still do not have their fire brigade, Faelnar advised the concerned barangay officials to quickly create their own.

Although the barangay officials are mandated to create fire brigades in their respective local government units, it was learned that there are still many barangays in the city who ignored the provisions of the law.

Aside from buying firefighting chemicals for the barangays, the mayor had also provided some barangays of the city with fire trucks so they can respond immediately in case of fires in their places.

More than 10 years ago, the Cebu City government also purchased millions of pesos worth of metal pipes as dry fire hydrants that were installed in the interior portions of the barangays.

The procedure is that when there will be fire incidents the fire fighters will no longer be wasting their time connecting their hoses from their fire truck to the fire scene but just attach their hoses at the opening of the dry fire hydrant.

But even some of these dry fire hydrants have been taken by thieves.   (FREEMAN NEWS)