Brgy council oks measures mitigating fire incidents

CEBU, Philippines - The Barangay Council of Paknaan in Mandaue City had approved two resolutions as mitigating measures against fire incidents here.

Paknaan Barangay Chairman Melaquias Soco said the two resolutions are: 1) Urging big companies located in the village to put up fire or emergency exits; and 2) requesting the city government to install more fire hydrants in the barangay.

Soco said establishments of big companies must have emergency exits because most of the interior portions of the barangay has narrow roads that it will be hard for the fire trucks to penetrate during fire.

Firefighters could also use these emergency exits to enter the buildings to contain fire, said Soco. This may be the only viable option for the barangay to do now because it would be impossible already to conduct re-blocking of barangay roads, at this time, because most of the lots here were already subdivided, he said. 

Citing the fires that hit three zones in the barangay last Tuesday, Soco also said more fire hydrants are needed tp be installed here.

He said the approved resolution for the installation of more fire hydrants will be forwarded to the City Council, and he hoped that the city government will also grant this request.

At present, there are only two hydrants in the barangay and both of these are in Zone Ube, he said, adding that the Barangay Council had came up with another ordinance raising the number of zones here. —RAE (FREEMAN)